Lyondell moves on big Texas project

LyondellBasell Industries has green-lighted plans to build in Channelview, Texas, what it says will be the world’s biggest propylene oxide/tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) plant. Expected to cost $2.4 billion, the project is the largest capital investment in Lyondell’s history, the firm says. At a site near Pasadena, Texas, an ethers plant will convert TBA into the fuel oxygenates methyl tert-butyl ether and ethyl tert-butyl ether. Many U.S. states ban the oxygenates because of their potential to contaminate groundwater, but they are widely used in Latin America and Asia.