With the Russian terephthalic acid market currently undersupplied, SIBUR has announced plan to expand its annual production capacity of terephthalic acid to 350,000 tones at the POLIEF Blagoveshchensk site. The project is scheduled for completion in 2019. Eleven existing production facilities will be upgraded. The project is designed to renovate 150 units of core production equipment, and most of the ancillary equipment, thus enhancing its industrial safety, reliability and efficiency.

According to Dmitry Konov, Chairman of SIBUR's Management Board, “The investment project at the Blagoveshchensk site seeks to meet the increasing demand from the food industry. It is also an important step of our production upgrade strategy intended to maximise energy efficiency and environmental safety of our facilities.”

The site’s atmospheric emissions are expected to shrink twofold after the construction of a modern gas catalytic oxidiser and the upgrade of all gas emissions treatment systems. Transition to rotary pressure filters will translate into 1.5 times lower industrial wastewater discharges. In addition, the production upgrade will virtually prevent excessive evaporation into the atmosphere resulting from a significant release of heat during terephthalic acid synthesis. After the reconstruction, vapour will go through cooling systems to return to the process flow, improving the site’s energy efficiency multifold.

Terephthalic acid is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a basic material for the production of modern polymer packaging for mineral water, dairy products, juices, sunflower oil, and products of the textile, medical and other industries.