French engineering and technology provider Axens has signed a licensing agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to provide technology for a high-purity 1-butene plant.

Axens’ AlphaButol ethylene dimerization technology will be used in the plant, which is to be built in Garadagh, near Baku, as part of SOCAR’s proposed gas and petrochemicals complex. The facility will produce 32,000 t/y of butene-1.

The project comprises an integrated grassroots complex that will process natural gas to produce high-value polymers. Plans are for 600,000 t/y of PE and 120,000 t/y propylene. Butene-1, a linear alpha olefin, is used in PE production.

Christian Dupraz, Axens’ senior executive vice president, process licensing, said its AlphaButol technology is a reliable and cost-effective process that has a long and successful track record, adding that Axens has recently conducted several clean fuels refining projects with SOCAR.

Separately, Axens and IFP Investissements, both wholly owned subsidiaries of IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN), have now acquired 88.6% of Heurtey Petrochem. Axens and IFP Investissements made an offer for the French rival last October. Axens said it will now combine with Heurtey and subsidiary Prosernat to form a technological industrial group specializing in clean fuels and eco-efficient technologies in the refining, petrochemical, natural gas, biofuels and renewable chemical intermediates sectors.