Sabic’s new High Density Polyethylene plant meets high expectations; first products commercially available up from now
SABIC’s new High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) bi-modal slurry plant – the LD6 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany - is up and running and meets the high expectations; the first produced SABIC® Vestolen A pipe grades are commercially available up from now.
The SABIC® Vestolen A family is well-known for its high quality; offering properties such as easy processability as well as excellent pipe performance with regards to reliability and safety. With the LD6 SABIC is ready for the future HDPE market: The LD6 secures future product supply, enables high-end product innovations and ensures a more environmental friendly production process.
Sustainability is in terms of products as well as production processes an important business focus of SABIC. "Particularly in this turbulent time of economical crisis sustainability has a high priority on our agenda," said Dieter Hollmann Business Unit Director HDPE. "The increasingly more challenging global environment demands us to look for practical solutions that optimize the business benefits of sustainable manufacturing. Our LD6 is the living proof that SABIC is committed to explore the opportunities." The new plant reduces operating costs, improves operational effectiveness and increases resource utilization. In comparison to a traditional HDPE plant SABIC’s LD6 reduces for example the electricity usage with 8%, air emissions with 85% and sewage with 50%.
SABIC’s LD6 is equipped with a leading production technology that secures a reliable and high quality product supply. The new plant will cover a production of 250kt per annum. "We’ve modified the basic licensed technology in order to obtain a larger production capability window and higher production flexibility," explains Jean Engels Business Manager HDPE. "Moreover SABIC is using its own proprietary catalyst technology, securing consistent high product quality."
The production technology is furthermore designed to enable high-end product developments. "In the near future we’ll expand our portfolio with a new grade family pushing the sustainability borders even further," said Engels. The new SABIC® HDPE family will cover market segments that require improved sagging performance during pipe extrusion and better slow crack growth performance for advanced pipe line installation technologies like sand-less embedding, re-lining, burst lining and directional drilling.
