Netherlands – Currently, Sabic at Chemelot is permanently closing the 55-year-old cracker Olefins 3. It is not a direct result of the current malaise in European industry, but a well-considered strategy. Pruning is never fun, states general manager John Bruijnooge. ‘But when your garden grows and blossoms again in spring like never before, you have long forgotten about it.’

Covid and the war in Ukraine have accelerated, but not necessarily caused, the less rosy developments in European industry, John Bruijnooge stresses. ‘Already a few years earlier we saw the trends. Europe was preparing the Green Deal and in the rest of the world, especially in China and the United States, large investments were made in the construction of large new chemical plants. This is going to affect the chemical industry in Europe, we saw well before the corona and Ukraine crises. In 2018/2019, therefore, we already started to strategically reorient ourselves.’

Cracker complex

Meanwhile, a reorganization of the polyethylene business has been completed and Sabic has started the next job: the neat closing of Olefins 3, the 55-year-old naphtha cracker at Chemelot. This is being done as part of a major turnaround in Geleen that is currently underway. Olefins 3 and five other plants at the cracker complex are being taken out of operation in the process. This maintenance project involves an investment of several million euros. However, naphtha cracker Olefins 4 will continue to operate normally.

Identical

Closing down operations should also make room for new activities aimed more at sustainable growth. In particular, another important part of the strategy is the construction of an advanced recycling plant by Sabic Plastic Energy Advanced Recycling (SPEAR). The plant, which Sabic is building in a 50/50 joint venture with partner Plastic Energy, is now nearing completion. The plant will convert waste plastic into pyrolysis oil, called Tacoil. This is the scale-up of the process Sabic has been doing for several years now to blend pyrolysis oil into naphtha as a feed for Sabic’s crackers. This will allow Sabic to produce more new, circular polymers that are identical in properties to existing polymers. The plant will have a capacity of 20 kilotons per year. A first step in Sabic’s global strategy to produce 1,000 kilotons of plastics from circular raw materials by 2030.