South Korean contractor SK Engineering & Construction has been tapped to carry out a front-end engineering and design study for a 750,000 t/y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant that Swiss-based olefins and polyolefins producer Ineos wants to build in Antwerp, Belgium, as part of a €3 billion project planned to start up in 2024.

SK’s $14 million contract, signed this week in London, calls for a one-year study of the project's economics and technical requirements. The company said it also has been selected as the preferred bidder to build the $1 billion PDH unit, which will be linked with an on-site ethane cracker that Ineos touts as the first grassroots facility to be built in continental Europe in 20 years.

According to SK, the contract is also the first PDH project awarded to a South Korean company in western Europe. Its affiliate SK Advanced will also be involved and will provide expertise on PDH operations to Ineos.

"We believe this investment will reverse years of decline in the European chemicals sector," Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe said in announcing the project at the beginning of this year. The liquefied gas feedstock is to be imported from the US. Ineos already imports US ethane for its crackers in Scotland and Norway.

The new production units are planned to be built directly adjacent to Ineos’ existing polymerization lines at the Lillo site in Antwerp harbor. The group’s other Belgian sites are connected by pipeline to the Antwerp facilities.                                                              

In May, backed by NGO campaigners, the appeals body of the Flemish regional government for public administration said it was seeking more information from the chemical producer about the complex’s approach to environmental protection as well as answers to questions about how the choice for Antwerp was made. Rotterdam in the Netherlands also bid for the project.