Aker Kvaerner passes acid test

has signed a contract with JiaLong Petrochemical Fibre Company to provide basic engineering design and technical advice for JiaLong's new Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant. The plant is to be built at JiaLong's petrochemical complex in ShiShi, Fujian Province, China.

The new plant will produce 600,000 tonnes per year of PTA. The project commences immediately, and start-up of the new plant is scheduled for late 2008. The project will use proven PTA technology from INVISTA (formerly DuPont Textiles & Interiors).

Aker Kvaerner has worked on more than 20 PTA facilities spanning more than 20 years. Currently, that represents around 20 per cent of the world's PTA production capacity.

PTA is the preferred raw material for polyester, first introduced in 1951. Today, PTA is used globally as a key ingredient in the manufacture of polyester fibres, resins and films and in the manufacture of PET.