In last July, Linde was appointed as the lead engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor of the new polypropylene plant to be built next to Braskem’s existing production facilities.
The Delta polypropylene plant will have an annual production capacity of 450 kilotons (kt), or the equivalent of nearly 1 billion pounds.
On its part, Bilfinger Westcon will install structural steel, piping, and industrial process equipment through the completion of the plant construction as per its contract.
Braskem North America CEO Mark Nikolich said: “With the recent milestone delivery of the reactors to the Delta site, Braskem and The Linde Group, as our lead EPC contractor have appointed Bilfinger Westcon, a leading construction service provider to the chemical and specialty chemicals industries, as our lead mechanical subcontractor.
“This appointment keeps us on track for our original Delta project timeline and further supports our leadership position as the largest producer of polypropylene in the Americas.”
The new Delta polypropylene production line will enable additional production capacity of homopolymers, random copolymers, impact copolymers, and reactor TPOs. These added capabilities will consolidate Braskem’s existing polypropylene production plant in La Porte which has an annual production capacity of 354kt.
Braskem said that the initial steel erection phase of the plant is in progress and that the last phase of main construction continues to be on track. This final construction stage is targeted for the first quarter of 2020.
Linde Group executive board member Christian Bruch said: “We are glad to see that construction of Braskem’s major Delta polypropylene project in La Porte is proceeding very well.
“With Bilfinger Westcon, Braskem and Linde have chosen a mechanical subcontractor with whom we have worked together successfully on the construction of several industrial plant projects.”
Braskem expects about 1,000 development and construction workers to be involved in the full construction of the La Porte polypropylene plant.
