Axens and Univation Link to Enhance LAO Technology
Axens and Univation Technologies have entered into a cooperation agreement to improve capital and operating efficiencies for the production of on-purpose linear alpha olefins (LAO), including both butene-1 and hexene-1 used to make PE resins by the Unipol Process.
The companies will work together to identify and capture capital and operating cost reduction opportunities, as well as optimize process requirements for both Axens’ LAO technology platforms AlphaButol and AlphaHexol, and Univation’s Unipol process.
Synergies and optimization will be carried out during the early process design phase of a project, they said, adding that the synergies apply to both new Unipol projects and retrofits for plants that are already in operation.
In separate news, Univation announced last month that OQ has started up two Unipol-based plants at the Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex in Sohar, Oman. The 440,000 t/y plants produce both conventional and specialty grades of HDPE and LLDPE, allowing flexibility to cover a wide range of applications.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
