Nippon Oil aims to up Muroran Cumene unit’s operating rate

Japanese company Nippon Oil Corp. plans to energize its cumene business, which it first entered into in 2008, but has been suffering the effects of a severe demand slump. The 170,000 tons per year (tpy) cumene manufacturing unit at its Muroran refinery began commercial operations in December 2008, but its operating rate has been stuck at around 50%, which the company plans to raise to 80% by July this year. Nippon Oil’s cumene business is part of a chemical/refinery integration strategy for the Muroran refinery, which lacks a nearby large-scale petrochemical complex, leading to the underutilization of facilities. The cumene unit is fed with propylene and benzene from a fluid-catalytic-cracking unit at the refinery, and its capacity was designed to maximize the volume of FCC propylene recovered. (April 2, 2009)