Sasol Mulls Gulf Coast Octene Plant

Sasol says its Lake Charles, La., complex is a “leading candidate” as a location to build its first plant to use ethylene tetramerization technology to make α-olefins. The unit would make 100,000 metric tons per year of octene and hexene, two α-olefins used in linear low-density polyethylene. Sasol makes other α-olefins at its complex in Secunda, South Africa, based on coal gasification and Fischer-Tropsch conversion of synthesis gas into fuels and chemicals. It and other α-olefins producers make coproduct α-olefins that are sold into sectors, such as detergents, that aren’t expanding as fast as the polyethylene market. Sasol says construction of the new plant would begin in 2011 and be completed two years later.