Chiba Butadiene Industry is currently operating its two butadiene extraction units in Chiba, Japan, at about 80-90% of capacity on tight feedstock supply, a source close to the company said Tuesday.
The company's 90,000 mt/year No. 1 butadiene unit resumed operations on June 22, after completing a planned maintenance program that began on May 9, and has been operating at 80-90% of capacity since then.
The source added that the company's 85,000 mt/year No. 2 butadiene unit has also been operating at "almost the same rate" as the No. 1 unit since last Friday.
Both butadiene units obtain crude C4 feedstock from Maruzen Petrochemical, which operates a naphtha-fed steam cracker at Chiba.
While Maruzen restarted the steam cracker on June 21, after completing a scheduled turnaround that began mid-May, the unit is currently operating at about 90% of capacity due to weak margins, said the source.
The steam cracker can produce 480,000 mt/year of ethylene and 278,000 mt/year of propylene.
The source said that butadiene runs at the two extraction units will remain reduced until Maruzen's steam cracker resumes full production.
Most butadiene is currently produced as a by-product of ethylene production from steam crackers. The crude C4 stream, which is isolated from the steam-cracking process, is fed to butadiene extraction units, where the butadiene is separated from the other C4s by extractive distillation. Butadiene is the chief raw material for producing synthetic rubber.
