Lummus Technology announced it has been awarded a technology contract by Zhangzhou CHIMEI Chemical Co., a subsidiary of CHIMEI Corp. of Taiwan, for a grassroots diphenyl carbonate (DPC) plant in Fujian Province, China.
Zhangzhou CHIMEI will build a new polycarbonate (PC) production plant that leverages the Versalis DPC technology licensed by Lummus. The plant will have a capacity of 156,000 metric tons per year of DPC and is expected to reach mass production in Q4 2024.
“CHIMEI, a world-class performance material company, has a strong commitment to implementing eco-friendly and energy efficient technologies,” said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Of-ficer of Lummus Technology.
“This world-class DPC technology can help CHIMEI achieve their commitment, which is something we are very proud of. We look forward to collaborating with them on their vision for cleaner and more sus-tainable operations.”
Zhangzhou CHIMEI’s new PC plant will implement eco-friendly features, introduce advanced technolo-gies to optimize energy efficiency and produce intermediate products that can be recycled and reused in the circular economy.
PC materials are some of the highest performing materials in the market because of their high-temperature resistance, high-impact strength and transparency, making PC materials the best choice for next generation applications such as electric vehicles, energy storage and 5G network equipment.
Lummus’ scope for this award includes the technology license, process design package services, oper-ator training and technical services.
Diphenyl carbonate is an intermediate to produce polycarbonate. The Versalis DPC technology licensed by Lummus enables the production of polycarbonate without phosgene or chlorine, which enables a more environmentally safe and non-corrosive process. It also has very low utility costs and is proven to be highly-efficient in recovering byproduct streams.