Project Profile
Location: Moerdijk, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
Area: 790 acres
Capacity: 5.4 million tonnes per year
Start-up Year: 1969
The construction at Shell’s Moerdijk Petrochemical Complex began in 1969. The petrochemical complex started up and shipped its first commercial product in 1973. Since then, Shell has continued to grow the facilities, investing significantly over the years to build several new plants and supporting amenities. Shell’s Moerdijk employs about 800 permanent staff and 500 contractors for maintenance and projects. It is one of the largest petrochemical facilities in Europe and is closely integrated with Shell Pernis, which is home to Europe’s largest refinery. Both sites supply each other with feedstocks – naphtha, hydrowax, gas oil and liquefied petroleum gas – via an extensive network of pipelines. The main products produced at Moerdijk are; Ethylene, propylene, cracked gasoil, hydrogen, ethylene cracked residue, acetylene, butadiene, butane, dicyclopentadiene, benzene, IP-feed, pyrolysis gasoline, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycols, ethylbenzene, styrene monomer and propylene oxide. About 50% of the goods produced at Shell Moerdijk are transported by pipeline (largely to and from Pernis), 45% by ship and the remaining 5% by rail and road (in tankers).
Moerdijk ethylene cracker and plant expansion
Shell Nederland Chemie BV decided to expand its existing plant at Moerdijk in the Netherlands in 1998. The project was completed in summer 2000. The ethylene cracker had its capacity increased from 650,000t/yr to 900,000t/yr. The cost was US$154m. The intention was to improve the efficiency of the plant in order to improve Shell\'s competitiveness in the ethylene and propylene derivatives market. The plant\'s ethylene cracker expansion uses Stone & Webster\'s proprietary Advanced Recovery System technology. In 1999, MDC Technology of the UK was ordered to install five real-time process information systems in Pernis and Moerdijk. The total contract was worth US$1.3m. The systems were installed to integrate data from the existing TDC3000 systems.
Operators:
Shell: 100% interest
Contractors:
Stone & Webster: Provision of advanced recovery system technology
MDC Technology UK: Installation of five real-time process information systems
Subcontractors: