By: ICN Bureau
Last updated : April 13, 2021 8:05 am
New AST polyethylene unit located at the new Rokeby Site in St. Clair Township, Ontario, will have a capacity of approximately one billion pounds per year
Nova Chemicals Corporation's new AST polyethylene unit located at the new Rokeby site in St. Clair Township Ontario will commence in late 2022.
The company announced its second Advanced SCLAIRTECH technology (AST) unit and the third phase of the Corunna Cracker Expansion Project have each safely surpassed 65% completion. The first of eight electrical substations were safely energized in March, and the company estimates that both projects will commence full start-up activities in late 2022, after the Corunna Site turnaround which is targeted for spring 2022.
The new AST polyethylene unit, located at the new Rokeby Site in St. Clair Township, Ontario, will have a capacity of approximately one billion pounds per year. The cracker expansion will provide ethylene feedstock to the new AST facility, expanding the existing unit’s current capacity by more than 50 percent.
Luis Sierra, NOVA Chemicals’ president and CEO said, “NOVA Chemicals will continue to be an innovator in developing a circular economy for plastics, which includes reducing plastic waste in our environment, by bringing new, premium-value plastics that support sustainable packaging solutions to the marketplace.”
"Our new octene copolymer AST facility will increase the volume of differentiated high-performance resins, provide our customers with supply assurance and introduce an expanded product slate designed to meet the increasing demand for easy to recycle products that help shape a better world,” added Sierra.
NOVA Chemicals develops and manufactures chemicals and plastic resins for applications such as food packaging, caps & closures and e-commerce packaging that make everyday life safer, healthier and easier. Currently, there are three manufacturing facilities. The Corunna Site produces 1.8 billion pounds of ethylene and about 250 million pounds of co-products annually.
Corunna provides feedstock to the Moore Site and St. Clair River Sites, which convert the ethylene into 1.38 billion pounds of polyethylene. Ethane, a component of natural gas, is the primary feedstock for ethylene production at Corunna Site.