The facility will have a capacity of up to 26,000 t/y with product commercially available in the second half of 2022. The company did not disclose the location of the plant, which will cost 831 million Czech koruna, or $38 million.

Tomasz Wiatrak, chairman of the board of directors of the Orlen Unipetrol Group, said there has been high demand for DCPD on global markets. He commented: “We expect the demand to grow by another 20% by 2030. On the American markets, the demand may rise by 40%, and in Asia, even by 60%. That is why we have decided to invest in the construction of our own DCPD manufacturing technology.”

Orlen Unipetrol’s technology isolates DCPD from the light pyrolysis of petroleum hydrocarbons. Tomas Herink, a member of Orlen Unipetrol’s board of directors responsible for production, research and development, said the project with the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague aimed to find a method of isolating hydrocarbons that are secondary products in petrochemical units, have a higher added value and can find an application in the market.

Consequently, the team developed isolation technology that yields DCPD with a density range of 80-94%. Herink said the installed capacity of Orlen Unipetrol’s new plant will approximate 25% of total DCPD production in Europe.

A fluid hydrocarbon, DCPD’s major use is in resins, particularly unsaturated polyester resins. The intermediate has a variety of applications in areas that include producing glues, dyestuffs, automotive and marine components, optic fibers, special lenses, medical components, packaging materials, and sanitary products for kitchens and bathrooms.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist