Sasol Nears Completion of Linear Alkyl Benzene Unit STAR Project in Baltimore

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Inc.; Houston Texas). Sasol North America Incorporated (Houston, Texas) will soon commission a $100 million project called STAR (Superior Technology and Renovation) that provides a new front-end process for its Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) Unit called Pacol, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Mustang Engineering (Houston, Texas) has provided engineering and construction management for the project that is planned to startup within the next couple of months. Construction for the new process began in July of 1999 and is expected to increase the unit's operating efficiency and reduce operating costs when completed, ensuring Sasol's competitiveness in the LAB market.

Progress for this project has been slow. "Industrialinfo.com began tracking this project in June of 1993," according to Trey Hamblet, Manager of Chemical Processing for Industrialinfo.com. The project was delayed over the years due to a number of issues. Several debottlenecks and capacity increases by other U.S. based LAB producers satisfied demand for LAB. This coupled with a poor LAB market lessened the feasibility of the project. Also plant ownership changes delayed the project. Vista Chemical owned this plant site when the project was originally conceived and Vista was later included in the CONDEA Vista Company venture, now owned by Sasol Limited, South America.