Chemopetrol Studies Sites for a Cyclohexanone Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Chemopetrol A S (Litvinov, Czech Republic) has begun site studies for a new cyclohexanone unit. The Litvinov site in the Czech Republic is being considered for the new unit, because of the logistical difficulties in transporting cyclohexanone from the Slovak Republic to Litvinov. Chemopetrol currently ships benzene to the Slovak Republic to produce cyclohexanone, which is then shipped back to Litvinov to be used as a feedstock to produce caprolactam. The roundtrip journey is estimated at over 800 miles, costing the company significant money and time.

The unit addition in Litvinov would free up capital to be invested in doubling the production of caprolactam, which could increase to 80,000 metric tons a year. Adding the unit would also allow the company to be self-contained and not rely on a production facility in another country. Although feasibility and site studies have just begun, estimated costs for the new cyclohexanone unit are approximately $150 million.

Chemopetrol A S is a subsidiary of Unipetrol A S (Praha, Czech Republic) and is the Czech Republic's largest chemical producer. Unipetrol was established on the 27th of December in 1994, and has nine subsidiaries in the Czech Republic that are in the petrochemical and refining industries. The unit addition and increase in caprolactam production follows the recent trend of Eastern European chemical production companies investing and expanding their facilities and production capacities.