The 400,000tpa plant will employ the world’s largest tubular reactor

Huntsman Petrochemical will use ExxonMobil tubular LDPE technology for the 400,000tpa plant it is to build on Teesside, under a licensing agreement made public yesterday.

The LDPE unit, scheduled to come onstream in late 2007, will employ the world’s largest tubular reactor for which the ExxonMobil design is seen as particularly relevant. The agreement makes Huntsman the seventh worldwide licensee for the ExxonMobil technology, which is also used by the licensor itself. George Barile, vice-president of technology licensing for ExxonMobil, said: “From our success with this technology, we believe the Huntsman plant will set a new global standard for LDPE production and will stimulate more demand for this proprietary 400,000tpa design.” The group itself has 1.5 million tpa of installed LDPE capacity worldwide.