Vienna, Austria-based polyolefins and fertilizer producer Borealis has tapped Italian engineering firm Maire Tecnimont as contractor for the new 750,000 t/y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant it plans to build at Kallo, Belgium.

The Tecnimont contract has a total value of around €90 million on a reimbursable basis. The award includes engineering, procurement, construction management (EPCM) and commissioning services contract for the plant and requisite utilities and interconnection.                

Additional propylene feedstock generated by the facility set to go on stream in mid- 2022 will supply Borealis’ planned expansion of polypropylene output at the complex near Antwerp. Hydrogen, another a byproduct of the process, will be sold to industrial gas producer Air Liquide under a long-term agreement.

Locating the additional PDH plant at Kallo will allow it to capitalize on synergistic effects with an existing PDH unit, Borealis said. The new unit will use Honeywell UOP’s Oleflex technology to produce propylene.

The olefins giant said earlier that it intends to add PP capacity equivalent to a new world-scale plant. “Investing in our European assets is essential in order to make good on our commitment to being our customers’ supplier of choice,” said CEO Alfred Stern.

Against the backdrop of rising European demand for propylene, Stern said the state-of-the-art PDH plant with its associated energy cogeneration unit will be one of the most energy efficient olefins plants worldwide to produce on-purpose propylene.

Maire Tecnimont CEO Pierroberto Folgiero called the new Borealis project “a game-changing initiative that will provide a significant boost to the European petrochemical value chain.”