EIB loan funds Spanish petrochemicals process upgrade

A €60mn European Investment Bank (EIB) loan, guaranteed by the European Commission, is to enable Spanish petrochemicals manufacturer CESPA invest in a new environment friendly production process by mid-2020, writes Keith Nuthall.

CEPSA is planning to install the Detal system it developed with UOP (Universal Oil Products; whose parent is US-based Honeywell) as its Cádiz plant, based at the company’s Gibraltar-San Roque refinery.

This will be the first operational plant worldwide to install the Detal system, improving safety, cutting emissions and reducing water and electricity use, to make linear alkylbenzene (LAB), the most common biodegradable detergents ingredient.

LAB producers generally use alkylation technology utilising liquid homogeneous catalyst systems based on either hydrofluoric acid or aluminium chloride, both challenging chemicals to handle. The Detal process, by contrast, uses a solid bed catalyst system. An improvement has incorporated transalkylation, where heavy alkylate (HAB) byproduct is trans-alkylated with benzene to form additional LAB.

The new process is also claimed to deliver better raw material consumption ratios and product quality. Furthermore, the new system is forecast to increase capacity by 25%, while reducing water consumption by 50% (reducing waste), increasing raw material consumption by just 2% and energy consumption by 9%. Carbon emissions will fall 6% as a result, saving 8,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually.

CEPSA’s Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery, home of the new Detal petrochemical production system
Photo: José Sáez