Compañía Española de Petróleos S.A.U. (Cepsa; Madrid, Spain; www.cepsa.com) has completed a revamping project to expand production at its Deten Química plant in Brazil. The revamping process allows it to increase the plant’s production capacity up to 260,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). With this project Cepsa reaffirms its international leadership position in the production of linear alkylbenzene (LAB), reaching a global capacity of 600,000 m.t./yr.
The plant improvement project has involved an investment of €64 million that, besides the work in the process area, includes the acquisition of 65 new pieces of process equipment, the transformation of part of the existing equipment and the construction of a new electrical substation. The work carried out as part of the revamping of the Deten Química plant has also permitted the introduction of various innovations and improvements in product quality as well as the optimization of the production processes. It has also resulted in improvements in the plant’s energy efficiency and emissions due to its lower consumption of natural gas and electricity.
The development of the improvement activities to increase the plant’s capacity involved the use of 140 tons of steel, 850 meters of pipes, 810 m3 of concrete and 116 km of cables, among other items.
“The revamp will allow us to further meet growing demand from the Latin American market. It will also allow us to respond to the increase in local demand for LAB in Brazil, which is expected to grow at a 2.3% annual rate through to 2030,” said José Manuel Martínez, Director of Petrochemicals at Cepsa.
LAB is an essential material in the production of the most widely used surfactants internationally for biodegradable detergents. The company has plants specializing in LAB in Spain, Canada and Brazil, whose total production represents 15% of world supply. The company’s LAB production represents 55% of the supply in Latin American countries.