The Saudi Basic Industries Corps, SABIC, announced that Saudi Arabia-based Jubail United Petrochemical Co. has signed a joint venture agreement with the South Korean firm Samsung Engineering for the engineering, procurement, and construction services for the third ethylene glycol plant.
The plant will produce 700,000 million tonnes per year of mono-ethylene glycol. The project will be executed in Jubail Industrial City located in the east of Saudi Arabia, and construction is expected to be completed in 2020.
"Due to the continued expansion of its subsidiaries, SABIC has become the largest producer of ethylene glycol in the world, and with the added capacity of the new complex plant, we strive to expand our production capacity," said Abdul Rahman al-Faqih, SABIC's Executive Vice President of Petrochemicals.
He said that SABIC also seeks maintaining this position and supporting its record of achievements in the level of service and customer satisfaction, pointing out that the new plant uses innovative technologies to reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency.
He pointed out that the plant will implement advanced manufacturing procedures developed by the Scientific Design, one of SABIC’s joint ventures. This company has also developed some of the important and modern techniques and catalysts in the petrochemical industry.
Notably, SABIC's ethylene glycol production meets growing global demand in key sectors such as polyester fibers and polyethylene trifates.
Part of the production of ethylene glycol is used within the company as raw material for the manufacture of products such as polyester.
It is also used as an important industrial solvent and in the manufacture of polystyrene, plasticizers and unsaturated resins.
It can also be used as a softener to make adhesives materials more flexible, and it is an important component in the composition of brake fluid, pastes and dyes.
