Lummus Technology (Houston) announced Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. (HPL) will license its olefins conversion technology (OCT) and the Lummus/Versalis cumene and phenol technologies for a new plant in West Bengal, India.
Once HPL’s plant is complete, it will be India’s largest cumene and phenol plant and the nation’s first on-purpose propylene plant. The milestone will also help HPL become India’s first integrated operator in the phenolics value chain and a leader in the niche specialty chemicals segment. The integration of OCT will strengthen India’s petrochemical market by allowing production of more phenol products locally rather than by importing them.
“We are honored to work with Haldia Petrochemicals, a long-time customer, on this critical investment for India’s petrochemical industry,” said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. “This is an opportunity to showcase Lummus’ integrated technology solutions to help our customer become a leader in the phenolics and specialty chemicals value chain.”
“With the commissioning of these plants, the overall chemical business portfolio is expected to increase by an additional Rs. 5,000Cr. The company has ambitious targets to complete the project by Q1 2026,” said Navanit Narayan, Chief Executive Officer of Haldia Petrochemicals. “As the plans move towards fruition, there will be advancement in areas such as digitization. This will generate direct and indirect employment in the downstream chemical industry. The total industrial scenario evolving around chemicals will witness tremendous growth within a very short period.”
Lummus’ scope includes the technology license for OCT and cumene and phenol technologies, basic design engineering, site services, advisory services and training.
OCT is the only commercially demonstrated route to propylene using metathesis chemistry, and it produces propylene from reacting ethylene with C4 and/or C5 olefins. In addition, Lummus and Versalis have partnered to license phenol and cumene technologies since 2007. The phenol technology is the lowest carbon footprint among available phenol technologies and provides a safe, reliable process that maximizes product yields and produces high purity products. The cumene process is a liquid-phase alkylation technology using a proprietary zeolite catalyst and is characterized by a very high cumene yield, ultra-high purity cumene product and a long catalyst run length.