Petronas and Evonik sign LoI for projects in ‘Rapid Project’  

Petronas (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; www.petronas.com.my) and Evonik Industries AG Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to jointly embark on the development of production facilities of specialty chemicals within Petronas’ Refinery & Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang, Johor. Under the LoI, the two parties will endeavor to form a partnership to jointly own, develop, construct and operate facilities for the production of hydrogen peroxide, C4 co-monomer and oxo-products within Rapid. The plants are expected to have the capacity to produce 250,000 metric tons (m.t.) per year of hydrogen peroxide, 220,000 m.t./yr of isononanol and 110,000 m.t./yr of 1-butene. The hydrogen peroxide will be used on site to produce propylene oxide by the licensed, eco-friendly HPPO process Evonik had jointly developed with ThyssenKrupp Uhde (Dortmund, Germany; www.uhde.eu). These projects are expected to come on stream in 2016. The LoI was signed in Kuala Lumpur on 16 January. Petronas was represented by its COO and executive vice president of Downstream Business, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, while Evonik was represented by its Member of the Executive Board, Dahai Yu. “The entire…