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, a manufacturing affiliate of SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation). The plant will be located in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia.
The plant will be designed to compress and purify around 1,500t of raw carbon dioxide per day 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 500,000t of CO2 emissions will be saved each year.
The plant will also be capable of producing 200t of liquid CO2 of food-grade quality per day, 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. The facility is to be completed on a fast-track schedule, with mechanical completion set to be achieved in 2015.
The plant is the first carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) project of this size to be realized in Saudi Arabia. The reduction of CO2 emissions is an important aim in both SABIC’s and Linde’s sustainability strategy.
