MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR, the largest petrochemical complex in Russia and Eastern Europe, plans to bring Russia's first plant for the production of maleic anhydride (MAN), located on the territory of ZapSibNeftekhim in Tobolsk and technologically related to it, to full mechanical readiness by the end 2021, said the company on its site.
Thus, the start of commissioning at the MAN production facility will begin in 2021. At present, the installation of all metal structures on the construction site is 98% completed, the total amount of which is 10,500 tons. The installation of technological equipment, which includes 240 production units, including a MAN synthesis unit, units for absorption, desorption, air compression, regeneration, and steam generation, is at the final stage.
In 2020, a MAN synthesis unit, where the main n-butane oxidation reaction will take place, as well as a steam generation unit, were delivered to Tobolsk via the Northern Sea Route from Germany and Korea. In early 2021, a compressor unit designed to compress atmospheric air before it is fed to the synthesis unit arrived at the construction site from South Korea. Equipment for large-sized units has been installed at the construction site, and the product pipeline is currently being installed. At the same time, 75% of technological equipment and 100% of building materials and metal structures are of domestic production.
By the beginning of June, the mechanical readiness of the first facility - an electrical substation, which will serve the existing MAN production, - had been achieved. Commissioning of the water recycling unit, built into a single closed water circulation system at the petrochemical production of ZapSibNeftekhim, will start in July 2021.
"The first MAN plant in Russia was actually built two years after the first pile was driven. This is a very tight time frame for the construction of such technologically complex production facilities. Additional challenges were the high density of production facilities at the construction site and the global coronavirus pandemic, which peaked main construction and installation works. We successfully coped with the first thing due to a clear schedule of construction and installation works and planning their sequence. The strict observance of all anti-COVID-19 measures at the facility, as well as the achievement of a safe level of collective immunity of the project office employees partially due to vaccination, helped to overcome the second thing. At present, we are completing the last construction and installation works and are preparing to reach the mechanical readiness of the entire complex ", - said the head of the project office" Creation of a new MAN production in Tobolsk" Vladimir Mishin.
MAN is base raw material for unsaturated polyester resins, copolymers with acrylic acid, epoxy resin hardeners, lubricating oil additives; It is used in the production of parts for cars, underground and overground storage tanks, films, synthetic fibers, pharmaceuticals, detergents, fuel components, large-diameter pipes, as well as in the food industry - for the synthesis of fumaric, malic, maleic, and tartaric acids.
Plasticizers are substances introduced into a polymer material to make it elastic and plastic during processing and operation. In particular, plasticizers are used for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The share of plasticizers used for the production of PVC products is about 80%.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 432,100 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponds to the last year's figure. At the same time, two producers reduced their output.
PJSC "SIBUR Holding" is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe with full coverage of the industry cycle from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to plastics processing.