Ineos Phenol (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineosphenol.com), a subsidiary of Ineos (Rolle; www.ineos.com), has announced the next phase of planning for its cumene plant in Germany – see Plasteurope.com of 08.08.2017. The company has initiated a front-end and engineering design (FEED) study and expects to make a final investment decision by the end of 2018.

The cumene unit will be located in Marl / Germany, where there is access to pipeline connections to Ineos' phenol and acetone production site in Gladbeck / Germany, Evonik's Marl chemical park and BP's refinery and cracker complex in Gelsenkirchen / Germany. The capacity of the plant has not yet been announced, but the company bills it as the world's largest single cumene line. It is expected to start operations in 2020.

According to Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), Ineos Phenol has capacities for about 1.9m t/y of phenol, of which just over 1.3m t/y are produced in Europe at Gladbeck and Antwerp / The Netherlands. Ineos is the market leader for phenol production, as well as for acetone. The company has lacked the backward integration to cumene, where it has global capacities of around 1.66m t/y. The shortfall of approximately 1.4m t/y has meant the company has had to buy in cumene.