Indorama Ventures Olefins LLC (IVOL), an indirect subsidiary of Thailand’s Indorama Ventures PCL (IVP), Bangkok, had the objective to renovate and restart a dormant ethane cracker in Westlake, LA. Originally planned for commissioning in late 2017 and mechanically completed in May 2019, the refurbished cracker—jointly owned by IVP (76%) and Singapore-based Indorama Corp. (24%)—is designed to process attractively priced ethane and propane feedstock from US shale to produce about ethylene and propylene.
This undertaking presented many challenges, and these will be summarized in this paper including the following:
- Understanding the business strategy – IVOL goal was to prepare the operational and support staff for the start-up of the dormant unit.
- Evaluating operational strategy – IVOL reached to KBR for support on evaluating the start-up plan, including co-design options for plant improvements and training of operations personnel.
- Delivering and implementing – KBR provided basic and detailed design for several parts of the plant. In addition, IVOL and KBR worked together evaluating and delivering the operational feasibility, pre-commissioning and start-up plans to put in place the necessary implementation steps to ensure a valuable and sustainable effort and practices for IVOL.
- Results - The 440,000-tonne/year cracker entered commercial operation on Jan. 31, 2020. As of May 2020, the restarted plant already has achieved its design operating rate than 100%, said Tony Barre, IVOL’s site director.
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