Austrian polyolefins giant Borealis (Vienna; www.borealisgroup.com) has awarded a contract to Jacobs Engineering (Pasadena, California / USA; www.jacobs.com) to provide engineering, procurement, project management and construction management services for its cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) expansion project in Stenungsund / Sweden.

Jacobs said it will debottleneck an existing XLPE compounding and soaking train and increase the intermediate storage capacity of the XLPE base resin in the upstream polymerisation plant. The work involves installation of new silos and conversion of film silos, as well as installation of conveying systems. The contract value was not disclosed.

Borealis said last month that it expects the project to add some 20,000 t/y of additional XLPE capacity from 2015 – see Plasteurope.com of 24.04.2014.