AlphaPet to Build $160 Million PET Plant in Alabama

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--AlphaPet Incorporated (Decatur, Alabama), a subsidiary of Indorama Polymers Limited (Bangkok, Thailand), has announced that it will construct a $160 million polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in Decatur, Alabama. The plant will be 70,000-80,000 square feet on 40 acres, and is expected to produce 420,000 tons per year of PET, making it the largest PET-resin unit in North America and the only PET producer in Alabama. AlphaPet will receive its feedstock of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) from the adjacent BP-integrated Decatur paraxylene/PTA plant.

Penta Engineering Incorporated (Charlotte, North Carolina) is handling the civil and structural engineering portions of the project. AlphaPet plans to select the construction management company to build the plant in the fourth quarter of 2007, with civil construction to begin by the first quarter of 2008 and to be complete in the third quarter of 2009. The plant will utilize the latest technology provided by Uhde Inventa Fischer, which eliminates the solid stating step from the process. AlphaPet will have the ability to produce different grades of resins simultaneously, enabling it to supply the carbonated-soft-drink (CSD) and custom-container markets.

AlphaPet and StarPet Incorporated (Asheboro, North Carolina) are the two North American subsidiaries of Indorama Polymers. Together, the two facilities will give Indorama Polymers a North American PET capacity of more than 650,000 tons per year and a global capacity of approximately 1.1 million tons per year.

Indorama’s news of the new Alabama facility followed the announcement that Italy’s M&G Group (Mossi & Ghisolfi) is planning a 650,000-ton-per-year plant for North America. The plant will use M&G’s EasyUp SSP technology and is expected to come on stream in 2009. For more information, view related July 31, 2007, article - M&G Pushing North American PET Envelope with 800,000-Ton Plant. United Resource Recovery (Spartanburg, South Carolina) has also announced a partnership with Coco-Cola to build a $45 million grassroot PET-recycling plant in Spartanburg. The plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds per year of PET flake and is expected to be fully operational in 2009.

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