Bayport Acrylic Acid Plant

Bayport Acrylic Acid Plant, Texas, United

States of America

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Project Type Acrylic acid plant

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Location Pasadena, Texas

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Order Year 1998

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Construction Started 1999

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Completion December 2002

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Estimated Investment $150m

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Owner and Operator AmericanAcryl

AmericanAcryl's acrylic acid plant is located near Pasadena in Texas. The site is situated alongside the

Houston ship channel, which is a major petrochemical industry centre.

AmericanAcryl chose the Bayport Industrial Complex because of its feedstock supply via pipeline, its

proximity to a major seaport terminal for exportation, its existing chemical industry infrastructure and

the available skilled labour force.

AmericanAcryl is a 50:50 joint venture formed in 1997 between Japan's Nippon Shokubai and

France-based Arkema. The plant is owned by Arkema and operated by Total.

Plans for the Pasadena plant were announced as a definite project in 1998, and civil work on the project

began in 1999, but it wasn't until the state issued air permits in July 2000 that the project started

officially.

The Pasadena plant became operational in December 2002. The cost of the acrylic acid plant was

estimated at $150m and the butyl acrylate plant was estimated at $50m.

In December 2009, an explosion occurred at the plant damaging a tank and injuring two workers.

In November 2010, Arkema announced its plans to invest $110m in the expansion of its acrylics

business in the US. The investment plan includes conversion of the butyl acrylate plant at Pasadena to a

40,000t/y 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate plant, improving the reliability of Arkema's Clear Lake facility in

Texas and construction of a methyl acrylate plant.

The conversion project is expected to be completed by early 2012 after which butyl acrylate production

will be shifted to the Clear Lake facility.

Acrylic acid and butyl acrylate plants

The Bayport facility includes a 120,000t/y acrylic acid plant and a butyl...