Sasol builds new plant to double Octene production

16 January 2006

Sasol today announced that construction of a 100 000 tons per annum 1-Octene plant in Secunda in South Africa was underway. The facility is scheduled to go into production during the second half of 2007 and will double Sasol's existing 1-Octene output to 200 000 tons a year.

Technology group Linde AG was awarded the “detail engineering, procurement and construction” contract.

“This new facility comes on the back of growing global demand from plastics manufacturers for this hydrocarbon molecule that, among others, gives special performance features such as elasticity, flexibility, impact resistance and strength to plastic consumer products,” says Sasol deputy CE Trevor Munday.

The new plant is the third 1-Octene facility to be constructed by Linde AG. Two  1-Octene plants with a combined capacity of about 100 000 tons a year are currently operated by Sasol. The new plant will be the sixth Alpha Olefin Plant that Linde AG will be erecting within Sasol's Secunda complex, which is situated approximately 150 km east of Johannesburg.

"Linde and Sasol started their business and technology cooperation more than 50 years ago. The two companies have through the years perfected their integration between R&D, pilot plant, engineering and project execution teams. The Alpha-Olefins venture, which began 15 years ago, is a unique success story and this project is only the last element of a long chain. Linde is very proud to be associated with this great South African enterprise," says Dr Aldo Belloni, member of the executive board of Linde AG, and responsible for the business segment, Gas and Engineering.

Sasol is a leading producer of products such as octene, pentene and hexene for use as chemical intermediates in the production of plasticizer alcohols, polymers, polyethylene, fatty acids, detergent alcohol and lubrication oil additives.

Octene is often used in combination with hexene and pentene to engineer a host of specific characteristics such as strength, thinness, elasticity and puncture resistance in products ranging from dense and durable plastic for wire coatings, automotive interiors, raincoats and strong garbage bas to low-density, high-quality shopping bags, cling-wrap film and myriad related consumer plastics.