Production starts at world's largest ethyl acetate plant

4 December 2001

BP has started full-scale commercial production from its new Avada ethyl acetate production unit at its site at Saltend in the UK. The 220,000 tonnes a year capacity unit is said to be the world's largest single ethyl acetate production unit.

The Avada plant was initially commissioned in June 2001 with on-specification product being produced only two weeks after start up. Plant production rates were increased to 75 per cent during the third quarter of the year and the plant is now undergoing its final high rate performance-proving trials.

The plant is the first to use BP's proprietary Avada technology, which produces ethyl acetate directly from ethylene and acetic acid. Ethylene is supplied to the plant through the recent extension of the UK ethylene pipeline system, linking Hull to BP's Grangemouth complex, and acetic acid is supplied from three plants on the Saltend site.

The latest control and on-line analysis technologies are reportedly employed in the operation of the unit, allowing it to be managed by a small team of operators. The new plant is the first to be controlled from the Saltend site's new central control room. It is intended that all plant operators on the site will eventually be located in this single control room.

Production from the new plant has replaced ethyl acetate production from the existing esterification unit at Hull and that toll-manufactured for BP by Enichem on its unit at Porto Marghera, Italy, which closed in January 2001.

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