Expansion Projects
Since 2012, LyondellBasell has made significant investments to expand capacity at key global manufacturing sites. In 2016, we completed a multi-year project to increase annual ethylene capacity in the U.S. by two billion pounds, which resulted in an overall 20 percent increase in U.S. ethylene capacity.
2012
120 million pounds-per-year combined ethylene/polyethylene increase – Clinton, Iowa and Morris, Illinois
2013
155 million pounds-per-year butadiene increase – Wesseling, Germany
250 million gallons-per-year methanol increase – Channelview, Texas
2014
800 million pounds-per-year ethylene increase – La Porte, Texas
220 million pounds-per-year polyethylene increase – Matagorda, Texas
2015
250 million pounds-per-year ethylene increase – Channelview, Texas
2016
800 million pounds-per-year ethylene increase – Corpus Christi, Texas
Greenfield Projects
In 2017, LyondellBasell started construction of the first commercial Hyperzone polyethylene (PE) plant located at our existing La Porte, Texas, complex. The new plant will be capable of producing 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) of high density polyethylene (HDPE) annually and will employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology, which produces HDPE plastic resins that have improved characteristics. Startup of the plant is planned for 2019.
Additionally, plans for a world-scale propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol (PO/TBA) plant at the company's Channelview site are progressing. The project is expected to produce 1 billion pounds-per-year of propylene oxide and 2.3 billion pounds-per-year of tertiary butyl alcohol.