Air Liquide in Talks on Polypropylene Project

State-owned National Petrochemical Company is negotiating with France's Air Liquide global E&C Solutions (formerly Lurgy GmbH) on construction of a polypropylene production plant in the country, the NPC director of production control said on Sunday.

“To complete the value chain of the petrochemical industry, NPC has set a tight schedule, which entails cooperation between Air Liquide and Iran’s Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC) in building a polypropylene unit in Iran,” Ali Mohammad Bosaqzadeh was also quoted as saying by Shana.

Air Liquide is an engineering, construction and chemical process licensing company. Since 2007, it has been part of Air Liquide S. A.,  a   multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to industries.

The company's operations range from providing technology and services in petrochemical and refining sectors to renewable energies.

According to Bosaqzadeh, this would be the first time that Air Liquide will  embark on a joint venture with Iran for polypropylene production.

Marzieh Shahdaei, NPC’s managing director, had earlier referred to the permit issued by the government for investment in a 120,000-ton per year methanol-to-propylene plant and noted that the plant's capacity will be raised to 500,000 tons in cooperation with Air Liquide.

Petrochemical Research and Technology Company has launched a pilot polypropylene production unit with limited output but has plans to boost annual output to 120,000 tons, 

Polypropylene is reportedly the world’s second-most widely produced synthetic plastic after polyethylene. In 2013, the global market for polypropylene was about 55 million tons.

“Our plan is to raise the output of the complex to 500,000 tons per year. To this end, talks have been held with foreign companies including Air Liquide,” Shahdaei said.

Esmaeil Qanbari, managing director of PRTC, said that the methane-to-propylene unit in the port city of Mahshahr in the southern Khuzestan Province, has a production capacity of 320 tons of propylene per year.

Plans call for increasing total production of propylene to 4 million tons per annum in 2021 and 8 million tons within the next decade.

Nominal petrochemical production capacity is currently at 65 million tons per year. Tehran hopes to boost it to 130 million tons a year by 2021 before reaching the lofty goal of 180 million tons by 2026.