Sasol starts up US Louisiana LLDPE unit, achieves beneficial ops

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Sasol has achieved beneficial operations of the US linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit at its Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP) in Louisiana, the company said on Wednesday. The 470,000 tonne/year LLDPE unit is the first to come on line for the project, which also includes a 1.5m tonne/year cracker, a 420,000 low density PE (LDPE) unit, ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) units and other derivatives. Sasol recently pushed back the expected completion dates of project units, with the EO/EG unit now expected online in June and the ethane cracker in July. Beneficial operations of the remaining units are expected to follow later in 2019 and in 2020. Sasol defines beneficial operations as production of on-spec material for at least 72 hours continuously.