Amoco No. 4 Polypropylene Facility

Amoco contracted with the joint venture team of Fluor and Technip for the engineering, procurement, construction and pre-commissioning for the No. 4 Polypropylene (PP4) Facility project.

Client's Challenge

The project was designed to produce a mixed product slate of polypropylene homopolymers (HPs) and ethylene-propylene random copolymers (RCPs). The Inside Battery Limits (ISBL) reactor area unit consisted of a single reactor system designed to produce 67,500 pounds per hour of HP and RCP with an effective unit operating factor of 93%. This corresponds to an annual capacity of 550 million pounds per year or 250,000 metric tons per year.

The design was based on the Amoco gas-phase process, derived from the design of Amoco Polymers' Geel PP2 polypropylene unit. Because the PP4 unit was not designed to produce impact copolymers, it contained only a single, but much larger, reactor.

Fluor's Solution

The Fluor joint venture team performed the engineering, procurement and pre-commissioning scope, with construction solely self-performed by Fluor.

Fluor identified a design that would permit the pre-assembly of three modules at grade to include all the structural components (equipment, piping, electrical, power, instrumentation, grating and stairways).

Modularization resulted in cost savings and a one-month schedule improvement.

The project achieved more than 500,000 hours without a lost-time incident, demonstrating a strong safety culture. With joint collaboration between Amoco and Fluor Houston, the project saved over $3.8 million dollars in CPI Value Awareness.

Conclusion

The PP4 project was completed in 1999.