Paris-based engineering contractor Technip Energies (www.technipenergies.com) says it has received the nod to supply proprietary equipment for the 1.45 mn t/y ethane cracker complex that Ineos Olefins (London, UK; www.ineos.com) is building in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium (see Plasteurope.com of 10.01.2022).

Technip previously carried out the extended front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the complex that Ineos calls Project One. Pegged to cost more than EUR 3 bn, site facilities are to also include a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit with capacity for 750,000 t/y of propylene.

The cracker being erected next to the site’s existing polymerisation units is now expected to go onstream in 2026, two years after the originally named start-up date of 2024 (see Plasteurope.com of 17.01.2019). Its output target has since been raised 200,000 t/y from the originally planned 1.25 t/y.

According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database, the European olefins arm of Ineos operates two HDPE plants at its port site of Lillo with capacities of 240,000 t/y and 200,000 t/y, and its PP plant there is rated at 130,000 t/y.

Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe has boasted that the new facility in Belgium would be the largest of its kind in Europe for more than a generation and reverse “years of decline in the European chemical industry.”

Technip said the cracker will have a CO₂ footprint of “less than 50% of the best 10% of European crackers”. Its modularised furnaces are designed to gradually transition to 100% hydrogen firing in the future, and the facility reportedly to be carbon-capture ready.

“Leveraging the engineering firm’s low-carbon ethane cracker technology and equipment as well as its extensive experience with modular design will result in a reduced site assembly footprint with sustainable features to reduce emissions,” said Bhaskar Patel, Technip’s senior VP for sustainable fuels, chemicals and circularity.

The contractor noted that the latest deal with Ineos is worth between EUR 250 mn and EUR 500 mn.