Serving the Teesside Business Community | 15
A major upgrade has retained the iconic Olefins Cracker( above) for another generation, says SABIC’ s John
Bruijnooge( left).
CRACKER FACTS
> SABIC’ s Olefins 6 Cracker is the biggest plant on the Wilton International site
> The Cracker was built by ICI at the cost of about £ 200 million and came into operation in 1979 when it was the biggest plant of its type in the world.
> Nowadays it would cost around £ 1.35 billion to build a Cracker from new.
> The plant features millions of individual components including 17 furnaces
> Each shutdown, which takes place every few years to allow critical maintenance and safety operations to take place, costs around £ 50 million.
Major plant dismantling underway
Once they were the beating heart of Teesside’ s petrochemical powerhouse. But several old plants on the Wilton International site have stood unused, exposed to the elements and slowly rusting into decay.
Now SABIC has committed to a multimillion pounds clean-up, an extensive five-year project to dismantle and remove five major units, all once part of the ICI empire, but now redundant.
Two of the structures, the giant Olefins 5 plant and neighbouring Butadiene facility, ended their working lives fully 35 years ago, with the Paraxylene and Aromatics 1 and 2 plants decommissioned in the more recent past.
Work is already underway to dismantle the plants in a project that will not be completed until 2021, with SABIC site director John Bruijnooge stating:“ The plants have stood there for too long and will eventually become a safety issue, so we have grabbed the bull by the horns.
“ This is a multi-million pound investment by SABIC, taking responsibility to remove redundant assets, starting with the oldest. Work is already underway and we expect to completely clear all five units within five years.”
“ The whole shale gas revolution in the USA has triggered a huge investment over there into Cracker operations similar to ours. The problem is that the USA doesn’ t need the eight or ten million tonnes of ethylene that its many crackers will be producing in a few years’ time, so they will look to export that surplus product, and much of that they will target on Europe.
“ While that’ s naturally a threat, what’ s great news is that we will now be better equipped to defend ourselves against these imports compared to other crackers whose feedstocks are solely based on naptha.”
Ironically, what was internally called the Teesside Gas Cracking Project was given the green light as a direct result of cheap stocks of ethane becoming available from across the Atlantic.
The biggest cost involved in the making of the Cracker’ s various Olefins products is its feedstock – or raw materials- that go into the process. SABIC committed to the conversion when it became clear that there was an opportunity to buy a new competitive feedstock – ethane- beyond the naptha, propane and butane the plant had conventionally utilised.
Bruijnooge explains:“ When ethane became available on the world market this
Relic: The Olefins 5 plant is one of those to be dismantled.
was the big game changer, allowing us to make a step change in competiveness.
“ To use a metaphor, it has brought us from sitting in the back of the bus to sitting at the front of the bus with the driver. Our Cracker is now among the most competitive in Europe.”
Combined with Teesside’ s established advantages of a deep sea port, astonishing cross-country pipe network and unique underground storage within huge salt caverns under the Wilton International site and close to the RSPB Saltholme nature reserve, the Cracker’ s ethane conversion means there’ s every reason for confidence in the foreseeable future.
And, adds Bruijnooge, the investment doesn’ t stop with the Cracker conversion.“ We have a fantastic old car and we’ ve put a new engine in but the gear box, brakes and many other elements also need replacing,” he explains.
“ We have a plant that dates back to 1979 and infrastructure that is 25 years old and more. So we have an ongoing large investment portfolio to upgrade all the rest of the assets that create, store and transport the products that the Cracker makes. So SABIC is committed to keep investing here on Teesside for many years to come.”