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Aither Chemicals Gauges Market for $750M Cracker
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Aither Chemicals LLC announced Friday that it has begun an “open season” to determine the profitability of building a $750 million ethane cracker plant near Charleston, W. Va. Aither, based in South Charleston, W. Va., says the "open season" process is “commonly used in the midstream energy business to determine market interest in new business opportunities.”
Aither’s announcement follows by a few months Shell Oil Co.’s announcement that it's evaluating a site in Monaca, Pa., for construction of its cracker plant. Shell is seeking state tax credits for the $3.2 billion project that could exceed $66 million annually for 25 years, according to published reports.
Aither Chemicals said it’s working with Bayer MaterialScience LLC to determine market interest for chemicals and plastics that would be produced by the cracker plant. This could include ethylene, acetic acid, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide for sale at competitive market pricing or use in making downstream derivatives and other products such as ethylene oxide, the company said
The “open season” will run through July 20. Aither said it will evaluate the response and decide on its next steps by Aug. 31. If the company decides to proceed with the catalytic ethane cracker, production could begin in early 2015, said its CEO, Leonard Dolhert.
“[This] is a first step towards building a catalytic ethane cracker in the Kanawha Valley region and we are optimistic that the market will respond,” said Aither in a prepared statement.
The company explained its production process as follows:
"Aither Chemicals brings its proprietary, scalable technology to crack ethane and convert it into other products. Aither’s technology was developed to take better advantage of ethane from shale gas, and to simultaneously lower the cost of producing ethylene, acetic acid, ethylene derivatives and/or acetic acid derivatives and other chemicals and plastics. Unlike steam cracking, which uses heat and steam to crack ethane, Aither’s process is a catalytic cracking process that uses 80 percent less energy and produces 90 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2) output. Much of that CO2 and/or CO output can be captured as a pure gas and utilized for the manufacturing of chemical and polymer products or used in other applications. Products that can be made from an Aither cracker and associated downstream derivative operations include: ethylene, acetic acid, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ethylene derivatives such as ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, polyethylene, acetic acid derivatives such as acetic anhydride, ethylene-acetic-acid derivatives such as vinyl acetate monomer, ethyl vinyl acetate , and other ethylene derivatives and acetic acid derivatives. Aither is in the process of selecting a location to build its catalytic cracker.
"Aither Chemicals plans to offer up to the following annual product volumes, or more if there is additional interest: 600 million pounds of ethylene, 300 million pounds of acetic acid, 80 million pounds of carbon dioxide, and 40 million pounds of carbon monoxide."
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.