The technology company The Linde Group has been awarded a contract to build the world’s largest carbon dioxide (CO2) purification and liquefaction plant for Jubail United Petrochemical Company (UNITED), a manufacturing affiliate of SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation). The plant will be located in Jubail Industrial City on the Arabian Gulf.
“We are delighted to further extend our long-standing, successful relationship with SABIC through this new project,” said Professor Dr. Aldo Belloni, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG. ‘By using our expertise in CO2 handling and management, we get the gas to where it is actually needed, ultimately helping to reduce CO2 emissions.”
The plant will be designed to compress and purify about 1500 tons per day of raw carbon dioxide coming from two nearby ethylene glycol plants. The purified gaseous CO2 will be pipelined through the piping corridor of the Royal Commission of Jubail to three SABIC affiliated companies for enhanced methanol and urea production. Methanol is a basic commodity for the chemical industry and urea is used for fertilizer production. In summary, an estimated 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be saved each year.
The plant will also be capable of producing 200 tons per day of liquid CO2 with food grade quality which will be stored and thereafter supplied by truck to the beverage and food industry.
Linde Engineering Dresden will be responsible for the concept and basic engineering, front end engineering design (FEED) and detailed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the facility to be completed on a fast-track schedule. Mechanical completion is set to be achieved in 2015.
The plant is the first carbon capture and utilization (CCU) project of this size to be realized in Saudi Arabia. The reduction of CO2 emissions is an important aimin both SABICs and Linde’s sustainability strategy.