Without disclosing the value of the second order, the Paris-based engineering firm identified it as a “large contract” worth €250-500 million. Technip has already undertaken Extended Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) for the facility.

The cracker is part of what Ineos calls Project One and is now slated to go on stream in 2026, two-years behind the original schedule. The more than €3 billion investment also includes a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant with capacity for 750,000 t/y of propylene.

According to the contractor, the cracker that will be built adjacent to Ineos’ existing polymerization plants for high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) at Lillo, will have a CO₂ footprint of “less than 50% of the best 10% of European crackers.”

Moreover, Technip said, the unit’s modularized furnaces are designed to be able to run entirely hydrogen in future, and the facility will also be “carbon capture ready.”

The modular design and Technip’s low-carbon ethane cracker technology and equipment will enable a reduced site assembly footprint with sustainable features to reduce emissions, Bhaskar Patel, the French firm’s SVP Sustainable Fuels, Chemicals and Circularity said.

When announcing the plans in 2019, Ineos owner and chairman, Jim Ratcliffe said the Antwerp project would be the largest of its kind in Europe for more than a generation and reverse “years of decline in the European chemical industry.”

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist