June 21, 2006 – Lotte Daesan Petrochemical Co. Ltd. has selected Basell’s Spherizone technology for a new 250 KT per year polypropylene plant to be built at Daesan, South Korea. Start up is planned for the fourth quarter of 2008.
The Spherizone process is an advanced manufacturing process for the production of polypropylene. It uses a unique, state-of-the-art, multi-zone circulating reactor system. Spherizone plants can produce the full range of polypropylene grades, as well as new families of propylene based polymers.
“The unprecedented interest in our new Spherizone technology reflects the industry trend to seek additional value through product differentiation,” said Just Jansz, president of Basell’s Technology Business. “Lotte is the second Spherizone license granted this month, and the seventh plant to be built with this technology. Nearly two million tons of capacity has already been licensed since the Spherizone process was commercialized less than three years ago.”
Basell is a leading licensor of polyolefin technologies. To date, it has granted nearly 200 process licenses, including more than 100 polypropylene plants. During the past 20 years, Basell polypropylene technologies have been used in about half of all new polypropylene projects world-wide.
Basell’s complete portfolio of licensed technologies is comprised of:
• Spheripol – polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers
• Spherizone – latest generation polypropylene technology based on new multi-zone reactor technology
• Spherilene – swing gas phase process for the production of LLDPE, MDPE and HDPE
• Hostalen - low-pressure slurry process for the production of bi-modal HDPE
• Lupotech T – high pressure tubular reactor process for the production of LDPE and EVA copolymers
• Metocene - technology for production of specialty polypropylene products based on proprietary single-site catalyst systems
Basell also produces and commercialises advanced catalyst systems which are sold under the Avant trade name.
Basell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and advanced polyolefin products, a leading supplier of polyethylene and catalysts, and a global leader in the development and licensing of polypropylene and polyethylene processes. Basell, together with its joint ventures, has manufacturing facilities around the world and sells products in more than 120 countries. Additional information about Basell is available at www.basell.com.
For more information contact Chantal Sohm, Basell Corporate Communications, at
+33 1 555 12 119 or chantal.sohm@basell.com
