Sadara, the joint venture between Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco, has started up the last of the 26 plants that make up its massive new petrochemical complex at Jubail Industrial City II in Saudi Arabia.

The newest plant produces crude quantities of toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) and other specialty chemicals and is one of three integrated units, the other two producing dinitrotoluene (DNT) and toluene diamine (TDA). The DNT and TDA units started operations in April. A facility to produce polymeric methylene diphenyl  di-isocyanate (PMDI), integrated within the isocyanates section, began producing commercial quantities in June, and a plant producing 400,000 t/y of polyurethane precursor polyether polyols went on stream in late July.

Sadara has been bringing the plants on stream sequentially over the past few years. The heart of the 3 million t/y complex is the mixed-feed cracker, which uses both ethane gas and naphtha liquid feedstock and started operation in August 2016. Sadara’s four PE production units started up between late 2015 and early 2017. To date, Sadara has qualified 32 PE products with another four expected by the end of this year.

Commenting on the commissioning, Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources and chairman of Saudi Aramco, said Sadara’s slate of high-value chemicals, including many firsts for the Kingdom and the region, will create the quality performance, value-added and plastics products that support a higher living standard around the world. Most of the product will be sold in Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern markets, which are expected to drive two-thirds of global petrochemical demand over the next decade.”