Ineos starts Europe’s largest cumene plant

Ineos has started up Europe’s largest cumene plant—a 750,000-metric-ton-per-year facility—in Marl, Germany. Cumene is a key intermediate in making phenol, which is used to make bisphenol A and phenolic resins. Ineos claims that due to a novel heat integration system, the plant’s carbon footprint is up to 50% lower than that of most cumene plants. The plant is using an existing pipeline to connect to Ineos’s phenol and acetone production sites in Gladbeck, Germany; Evonik Industries’ Chempark in Marl; and BP’s refinery and cracker complex in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.