Borealis invested EUR 7.8 million in new butane storage cavern at Stenungsund, Sweden.Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions, invested EUR 7.8 million to convert a naphta cavern to butane use in its Stenungsund steam cracker plant. The new cavern is by far the largest in Europe and will further optimise the plant’s feed flexibility.
Naphta and butane are used in the petrochemical industry for producing olefins in steam crackers. Borealis invested EUR 7.8 million to convert an underground naphta cavern in Stenungsund, Sweden, for butane use. The new cavern is now by far the largest in Europe, and can handle both butane at ambient temperature and refrigerated cargos. Due to its enormous size, the cavern can receive the largest butane carriers available and ensure feed flexibility almost all year round.
“Innovation in every sense is core to our successful Value Creation through Innovation strategy”, says Borealis Chief Executive Mark Garrett. “This innovative cavern conversion will further improve our competitiveness and add to our feedstock flexibility.”
Borealis, the only polyethylene (PE) producer in Sweden, is located in Stenungsund, 50 km north of Gothenburg, where Borealis is the biggest employer in the city’s industrial cluster. Borealis in Sweden supports customers with speciality plastics for some of the largest energy supply as well as oil and water pipeline projects worldwide.
The Borealis cracker plant in Stenungsund is one of the most flexible in Europe, using naphtha, ethane, propane and butane as feedstock. These raw materials are delivered by ship directly to the Borealis harbour in Stenungsund, where more than 400 ship movements each year serve our import and export requirements. With a capacity of 620,000 tonnes of ethylene and 228,000 tonnes propylene per year, the cracker's main products are ethylene and propylene, which are used to produce high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and Borstar® PE products, primarily for pipe and wire and cable applications.
Borealis' operations in Sweden also include an Innovation Centre focused on polymer design, scientific services, and research and development (R&D) for infrastructure industry solutions. In 2010, Borealis in Sweden completed an over EUR 400 million investment in a new 350,000 t/y high-pressure, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant, enhancing its capability to provide advanced materials for wire and cable applications.
