The fifth and sixth units at Sasol’s Lake Charles Chemicals Project are now online, bringing the online capacity of LCCP’s specialty chemicals units to 100% and the facility’s total online nameplate capacity to 86%.
“The beneficial operations of these LCCP facilities progresses Sasol’s seven-unit U.S. Gulf Coast mega project to the cusp of completion,” Sasol President and CEO Fleetwood Grobler said in a statement. “The additional capacity strengthens Sasol’s leadership position in the specialty alcohol and alumina markets, which is core to the company’s chemicals growth strategy.”
The Ziegler and Guerbet alcohols units expand Sasol’s position in having the broadest integrated alcohols and surfactants portfolio in the world. Sasol is a recognized leader in chemicals for essential care markets such as laundry, home care, personal care and hygiene.
The LCCP Ziegler unit is an extension of the existing Ziegler plant in Lake Charles and is the largest of its kind in the world adding nameplate capacity of 173,000 tons per year (173 ktpa) of alcohol and 32,000 tons (32 ktpa) of alumina.
The Ziegler unit supplements Sasol’s global production of alcohols and aluminas, adding to existing Ziegler capacity in both Lake Charles and Brunsbuettel, Germany. The unit is the most technically complex of the units in the LCCP and is based on Sasol’s proprietary technology.
The additional alumina capacity from the Ziegler unit will enable Sasol to supply the increasing market demand for tailor-made, high purity alumina products used in a variety of market applications such as catalysts, films, ceramics and abrasives. The expansion will support the growth aspirations of customers requiring Sasol’s unique alkoxide based alumina products.
Sasol’s new Guerbet unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast is the company’s second Guerbet alcohol production site; the other is also located in Brunsbuettel. The unit in Lake Charles is the largest Guerbet alcohol plant in the world and has a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tons per year (30 ktpa).
The last remaining unit to come online at LCCP will be the low-density polyethylene plant, scheduled to come online by the end of September 2020.
