Engro planning a massive multi-billion-dollar chemical complex

Pakistani conglomerate, Engro Corp is planning a massive $1.5 billion chemical facility, which would make Pakistan a self-sufficient producer of Polypropylene.

As per details, Engro Corporation has selected Honeywell UOP and W. R. Grace & Co. as technology partners to use their licensed process technology for the $1.5 billion, 750,000 Propane Dehydrogenation (“PDH”) and Polypropylene (“PP”) production.

Polypropylene resin is used in the manufacturing of a variety of daily use consumer products including woven bags, food and non-food packaging, films, sheets, household containers, battery casings, kitchenware, electrical appliances, bottles, caps, pipes & fittings, medical equipment, and a wide range of other products. To meet these needs, polypropylene has a local annual demand of 500,000 with an expected grow rate of 7% annually.

Honeywell will provide its C3 Oleflex technology and basic engineering design services, in addition to equipment, catalysts and adsorbents for the plant. Since 2011, most of the new dehydrogenation projects globally have been based on UOP C3 Oleflex technology. However, this will mark the first use of C3 Oleflex in Pakistan.

W. R. Grace & Co., the supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, will provide its state-of-the-art UNIPOL PP Process Technology to help achieve mechanical and operational simplicity. The process technology, coupled with Grace’s catalyst and donor systems and the UNIPOL UNIPPAC Process Control System, allows for maximum performance.

“Engro continues on its journey towards solving the most pressing issues of our time by investing in projects which will serve to be catalysts of growth for Pakistan. For the Project, we have selected Honeywell and Grace as our technology partners. This collaboration will support the advanced studies for the Project, which can be a significant milestone for Engro and Pakistan towards import substitution that will help build foreign exchange reserves, while also enhancing the petrochemicals landscape of the country,” Ghias Khan, President & CEO of Engro Corporation said.

Pakistan faces a critically adverse balance of payments situation due to the country’s continued reliance on imports, and petrochemicals are one of the largest imports of the country, contributing around USD 2 billion to the import bill. Currently, Pakistan spends about USD 600 million on annual import of polypropylene.