Basell is continuing to modernise its polymer making facilities in Europe by deploying its new Spherilene S PE technology at its Wesseling site, near Cologne. The unit, which currently uses the Lupotech G process on an 80,000tpa line, will be converted to the single reactor gas phase technology on a plant scheduled to start up in 2008.
Spherilene S can swing between HDPE and butene or hexene comonomer LLDPE producing both from the same Ziegler catalyst family, with low build and operating costs, according to Basell technology president Just Jansz.
Meanwhile Basell has marked its 200th polyolefin process licence with the sale of its recently launched Spherizone polypropylene technology to China’s Sinopec group for a new 450,000tpa unit.
The plant, to be built at Tianjin, is the eighth featuring the Spherizone multi zone circulating reactor technology to be sold and the third in the last two months.
