Market sources informed SSESSMENTS.COM that Sasol’s 30,000 tons/year Guerbet alcohol plants at its Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP) in Louisiana achieved beneficial operations on June 19. Three days earlier, the South African company also reached beneficial operations at the Ziegler alcohol unit at the same complex which can produce up to 173,000 tons/year of alcohol and 32,000 tons/year of alumina.
Sasol defines beneficial operations as 72 uninterrupted hours of on-specification production. Both alcohol units are the world’s largest of each kind. The startup is in line with Sasol’s recent guidance that the two units will come online before end-June. Sasol’s LCCP now has six online units that represent more than 86% of the complex’s total production.
The 470,000 tons/year low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant will be the last LCCP unit to come online. Previously, SSESSMENTS.COM reported that the LDPE plant was damaged by an explosion and fire which occurred at its high-pressure section during a commissioning process on January 13. In February, Sasol said the LDPE plant completion would be delayed until the second half of 2020.
