Uhde to build $680m plant

Egyptian Propylene & Polypropylene Company (EPPC), under the lead of Oriental Weavers Group, has commissioned

to build a turnkey petrochemical complex in

.

The complex will consist of a propylene plant and a polypropylene plant with respective annual production capacities of 350,000 tonnes as well as all utilities and offsites, including an air fractionation and refrigerating unit, and storage tanks.

The contract, signed in Cairo at the end of 2006, includes the licence, basic and detailed engineering, supply of equipment, construction, training of operating personnel and commissioning.

EPPC is investing $680m in this new petrochemical complex. Completion is scheduled for late 2009. Propane from Egyptian natural gas deposits will be used as the feedstock.

‘This is the first time that our proprietary STAR process will be used for the commercial-scale production of propylene from propane,’ said Klaus Schneiders, Chairman of the Executive Board. ‘It thus marks the commercial breakthrough of our new propane dehydrogenation technology.’

Uhde's STAR (STeam Active Reforming) process for dehydrogenating light hydrocarbons, such as propane to propylene or butane to butylene, is based on conventional steam reforming technology and a downstream oxidation reactor (oxyreactor), both using a special dehydrogenation catalyst.

A similar type of oxyreactor has already been used in over 40 ammonia plants built by Uhde. Uhde acquired the conventional STAR process from the US company Phillips Petroleum in 1999 and has since developed it further.