Two years after first announcing plans for a new integrated cracker and LDPE complex at its site in Point Comfort, Texas / USA (see Plasteurope.com of 02.03.2012), Formosa Plastics Corporation USA (FPC, Livingston, New Jersey / USA; www.fpcusa.com) has tasked ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (Essen / Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) with building the site’s propane dehydrogenation facility. The plant, scheduled to come on stream in 2016, will use the latter’s “Steam Active Reforming” (STAR) process to process locally sourced shale gas. It will have a nameplate capacity of 545,000 t/y.

Once complete, the Point Comfort site will also include an 800,000 t/y light feed ethylene cracker as well as two LDPE lines.