BP has completed an upgrade of its purified terephthalic acid plant in Charleston, South Carolina, increasing the facility's production capacity by 10%, the company said Wednesday.
The expansion, part of a $200 million program, brings capacity at the Cooper River plant to 1.4 million mt/year.
The upgrade will also cut the facility's carbon emissions by about 109,000 mt/year, the company said.
"This project is a major step forward for the Cooper River facility, making it one of the most efficient, environmentally conscious and cost-competitive in the industry, while also enabling it to produce one of the lowest-carbon products of its kind," said Luis Sierra, Global Aromatics CEO.
The new capacity expansion is online and producing, a BP source confirmed Wednesday.
The improvements also will allow BP to produce a new low-carbon brand of PTA, as well as what it says is the world's first certified carbon-neutral PTA. BP first began production of these in Europe in 2016.
PTA is a raw material used to make polyester and has applications ranging from fabrics to food and beverage containers.
The formula-based June US PTA contract price remains unsettled. The May PTA price settled at 42.98 cents/lb ($947.54/mt), down 0.67 cents from April, according to S&P Global Platts data. US PX contract prices typically settle retroactively, with the formula-based US PTA price following. The June US PX contract price has yet to settle.
