Daelim Plans Capacity Expansion of Highly Reactive Polubytene
(Dalim High reactive polybutene plant in Yeosu Industrial Complex)
Daelim Industrial petrochemical division announced its plan for an expansion of Highly Reactive polybutene(HRPB) capacity on February 9, 2015. The total capital investment of $67 million will allow Daelim to increase the annual capacity of HRPB from 65,000 tons to 100,000 tons by November 2016 in Yeosu Industrial Complex. Along with the projected expansion, Daelim consolidates the position as world No. 1 polybutene supplier with its annual capacity of 185,000 tons, including the production capacity of Conventional Polybutene (ConPB) of 85,000ton/year, outrunning BASF (about 140,000 ton/year)’s capacity .
Polybutene is mainly used for lubricant additive and a fuel detergent. Especially, HRPB raise the efficiency by reducing the steps of production and has no chlorine content hence it is compatible material for the environmental friendly products. As the environmental movement tends to lead strengthened regulation on increasing fuel efficiency, consumption of HRPB has been consecutively growing by 4% per year along with enlarged eco-friendly lubricant additive and fuel detergent market.
By expanding the capacity, Daelim Industrial consolidates the position of world No. 1 Polybutene supplier leading the market. It is also well known for excellence in its quality hence more than 90% of Daelim’s HRPB is consumed by global lubricant additive suppliers such as Chevron Oronite, Lubrizol, Infinium, and others. The incremental productivity is also anticipated with implementing efficiency on using raw material reducing the cost when the expansion has been successfully completed with Daelim’s state-of-the-art technology.
Daelim has launched Polybutene manufacturing process in commercial market since 1993 thus in 2012, it has successfully developed HRPB, which is functionally improved, becoming the third developer following German and American suppliers. Daelim is the first provider in the world that has ability of manufacturing both C-PB and HRPB in a single plant hence it enables to serve flexibility of production between HRPB and Con PB.