20-11-2019
Next Wave Energy to build ethylene-to-alkylate production facility
Next Wave Energy Partners, LP today announced it has made a positive final investment decision (FID) to construct a new alkylate production facility, known as Project Traveler, which will be located adjacent to the Houston Ship Channel at Next Wave’s 53-acre site in Pasadena, Texas. Next Wave will convert a portion of North America’s growing ethylene supply to alkylate by utilizing licensed and commercially proven process technologies at the facility, which will have a nameplate capacity of 28,000 barrels per day of alkylate. Next Wave expects initial production by mid-2022. Project Traveler is underpinned by long-term customer contracts for a majority of the nameplate capacity. Equity financing for the project is being provided by Energy Capital Partners and members of Next Wave’s senior management. The total cost for the project was not disclosed.
“Project Traveler was conceived to benefit from two important trends in our industry – growing demand for additional octane and abundant domestic supplies of natural gas liquids and their derivatives,” said Next Wave Executive Chairman Patrick Diamond. “By starting with a chemically pure feedstock and thereby avoiding the feedstock constraints typically found in refinery alkylation, our facility will produce one of the highest-quality alkylate products available in North America, which is particularly attractive for blending the cleaner-burning gasoline required by the high performance engines of today and tomorrow.”
Alkylate is a valuable gasoline blending component that is one of the cleanest petroleum products that can be produced and typically comprises about 11% to 13% of the overall gasoline pool in the United States. Alkylate is prized for its high octane, low vapor pressure and low sulfur properties. Next Wave’s alkylate product, marketed under the trade name Optimate, offers qualities superior to traditional refinery alkylate because it can be produced with 96.0 road octane (98.0 Research Octane Number), a low 3.5 Reid vapor pressure and five parts per million or less of sulfur.
“We are very excited to announce our final investment decision for Project Traveler,” said Next Wave President and CEO Michael Bloesch. “Our technical team has invested considerable time and effort in the design of the facility, which includes the built-in ability to cost-effectively expand production capacity in the future. Working with potential suppliers and offtake partners, we have already commenced engineering for a second alkylation unit at our Pasadena site to capitalize on incremental demand for our services. We believe our premier location near the Houston Ship Channel offers our customers unsurpassed connectivity to feedstock supply, product offtake and gasoline blending and distribution infrastructure.”
The Next Wave facility will have the capability to consume in excess of 1.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene feedstock, which will be delivered to the site by multiple pipelines. The Optimate product will be delivered via direct-connection pipelines to major gasoline blending terminals in Pasadena, which have dock access to marine movements through the Houston Ship Channel as well as connections to major refined product distribution pipelines. The Next Wave facility also has been designed to accommodate receipt of feedstock and delivery of product by rail as future business opportunities warrant.
The project is expected to create up to 750 jobs during construction and approximately 30 direct permanent jobs once completed.
News Category:
-
Beyond processbook & PI vision: Exploring today’s industrial analytics tools
(Webinar) - In the Manufacturing 4.0 era, industrial organizations have more data at their fingertips than ever, offering the promise of higher production rates, more ...
04-06-2024
-
Sasol provides state of the art catalysts to INERATEC for the production of sustainable e-fuels
The catalysts will be used, among others, in the first large-scale industrial Power-to-Liquid (PtL) plant that INERATEC is currently building in Frankfurt, Germany, which ...
24-04-2024
-
Baker Hughes to supply 17 centrifugal compressors to Saudi Master Gas System project
Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, announced Tuesday that it has received an order by Worley, for and on behalf of Aramco, to supply gas technology equipment ...
23-04-2024
-
SABIC Fujian Petrochemicals select Phenol yechnology from KBR
KBR announced today it has been awarded a contract by SABIC Fujian Petrochemicals to license KBR's market-leading phenol technology in China. Under the terms of the ...
22-04-2024
-
Lummus Expands R&D capabilities to enhance innovation and water and wastewater technologies
Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and value-driven energy solutions, announced the opening of its cutting-edge research and development (R&D) ...
17-04-2024
-
Clariant launches new CATOFIN® 312 propane dehydrogenation catalyst
Clariant, a sustainability-focused specialty chemical company, today announced the launch of CATOFIN 312, its latest propane dehydrogenation catalyst. The new catalyst ...
16-04-2024
-
Yokogawa and GridBeyond conclude investment and strategic partnership agreements
Yokogawa Electric Corporation and energy IT solutions provider GridBeyond of Ireland announce that they have concluded a strategic partnership agreement. Furthermore, ...
16-04-2024
-
Heraeus Precious Metals launches Circlear
Heraeus Precious Metals, a globally leading company in the precious metals industry and one of the largest recyclers of precious metals, has introduced its new offering ...
16-04-2024
-
EMA and JERA to cooperate on LNG procurement and supply chains
The Energy Market Authority and JERA Co Inc, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on mutually beneficial areas in liquefied natural gas procurement ...
16-04-2024
-
Hexagon and Dragos unveil technical partnership to strengthen industrial cybersecurity
Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division today announced a strategic partnership with Dragos, a global leader in cybersecurity for operational technology (OT). ...
16-04-2024