Shell advances plans to enter polycarbonate business

Shell Chemicals has signed an agreement with China’s CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals to build the first polycarbonate plant based on Shell technology. The process, an alternative to conventional schemes involving the toxic gas phosgene, starts with a Shell-developed route for making diphenyl carbonate. The intermediate is reacted with bisphenol A in a process licensed from the German firm EPC Engineering & Technologies to make the engineering polymer. The plant will be built at a Shell-CNOOC joint venture complex in Huizhou, China. Shell is also building a development unit in Jurong Island, Singapore.