Kochi: The BPCL Kochi refinery will kick off the Rs 4,700-crore propylene derivatives petrochemicals project (PDPP) this month with the launch of the civil works.
“The tendering process is in the final stages and we shall start the work this month,” BPCL-Kochi refinery executive director Prasad K. Panicker told Deccan Chronicle.
The first of its kind in India, the project will produce niche propylene derivatives such as acrylic acid, acrylates and oxo alcohols from about 2.5 lakh tone propylene the company will produce a year once the ongoing Integrated Refinery Expansion Project is completed in 2016. “Most of these products are being imported now,” Mr Panicker said.
The company has tied up with Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions, Germany for the production of acrylic acid, Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Limited, UK, for oxo alcohol and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Japan, for acrylates.
The project, coming up close to the Kochi Refinery which makes integration of feedstock supply, utilities, offsites and other general facilities with the refinery easy, is expected to be completed and commissioned by August 2018, Mr Panicker said. “The land required for the project is already available,” he said.
The products with extensive applications in environment friendly areas such as water-based paints, adhesives and printing inks are manufactured by only a few producers in the world, located in developed countries such as Europe, Japan, Singapore and China.
“The technology licensors are also very limited,” he said. The proposed facilities would be the first world scale capacity plants in India for these products.
There is considerable opportunity for the setting up of downstream and ancillary industries taking into account the nature of products and utilisation in common applications, he said.
