LyondellBasell grants Lupotech T license to Slovnaft Petrochemicals for new plant in the Slovak Republic

Slovnaft Petrochemicals, s.r.o., a subsidiary of the MOL Group, has selected LyondellBasell’s Lupotech T technology for a new 220 KT per year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant planned to be built in Bratislava, located in the Slovak Republic. Start up is expected in 2012.

“To successfully compete in the European market, our petrochemical assets demand leading economics through best-in-class operating performance, a superior product portfolio and optimum site integration, which is to be achieved by our planned major investment and by selecting LyondellBasell’s Lupotech T LDPE technology,” Árpád Olvasó, Senior Vice President - MOL Petrochemicals, said yesterday at the signing ceremony in Budapest.

Just Jansz, President of LyondellBasell’s Technology Business, commented: “This is already our fourth polyolefins process technology we have licensed to the MOL Group, building on a relationship that spans more than twenty years.”

“The new plant for Slovnaft Petrochemicals is the 17th Lupotech T technology license granted since the year 2000,” added Jansz. “With a total of more than 7 million tonnes of licensed capacity to date, Lupotech T has established itself as the clear market leader in high pressure LDPE technology.”

Key features of Lupotech T technology include low manufacturing and investment costs, fast start up and grade changes, and a high on-stream factor which make it today’s technology of choice for the world scale production of LDPE and EVA copolymers.

In addition to the Lupotech T process, LyondellBasell’s portfolio of licensed polyolefin technologies and associated technical services is comprised of:

• Lupotech A - high pressure autoclave process for the production of specialty LDPE and EVA copolymers
• Spherilene – advanced, swing-gas-phase process for the production of LLDPE, MDPE and HDPE
• Hostalen – leading low-pressure slurry process for the production of bimodal HDPE
• Spheripol – leading polypropylene technology for the production of homopolymer, random and heterophasic copolymers
• Spherizone – latest generation polypropylene technology, based on a new multi-zone reactor for the production of polypropylene and novel polyolefins.
• Metocene PP – technology for the production of specialty polypropylene products using single-site catalyst systems