PetroquímicaSuape's Pure Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant being built in the Port of Suape, Pernambuco, North East Brazil, will be the largest polyester plant in Latin America. Aker Solutions is part of this important and challenging project, delivering basic and detailed engineering design and providing offshore procurement services for long delivery purchase orders. The new plant will produce 640,000 tpa of PTA, and is expected to come on line in Q4 2010.

A key milestone in the project sees the first equipment starting to arrive at Suape harbour. A 1,255 tons load has recently arrived from Japan, bringing some of the main components of the PTA plant. Amongst this load is the oxidation reactor, the most important equipment of the plant. The oxidation reactor is a 298 tons cylinder where the raw material, paraxylene, reacts with oxygen and produces the PTA.

The main goal of PetroquímicaSuape is to produce modern and competitive raw material for the textile industry in Brazil.

Aker Solutions has a wide experience in developing projects for PTA plants, working on more than 21 PTA facilities, which represents around 20 per cent of the world's PTA production capacity. PTA is the preferred raw material for polyester, used for polyester fibres, resins and films and in the manufacture of PET. Polyester is also used for tyres, electrical equipment and plastic film for packaging.

Source: Aker Solutions