GE Energy’s Frame 6B gas turbine technology has been selected for a cogeneration plant being built as part of a new project in the Sines petrochemical industrial park that will contribute to the regional development of Portugal’s Alentejo coastal area and to the revitalization of the Sines port.
When completed, the 40-megawatt cogeneration facility will support a pure tereftalic acid (PTA) producing plant that will have a PTA production capacity up to 700,000 tons per year, making it one of the largest production plants of its type in the world. PTA is the raw material required for the production of polyethylene terephtalate (PET), a polymer resin widely used in synthetic fibers, packaging applications and engineering resins.
The PTA plant, to be named Artenius Sines, will be owned and operated by La Seda de Barcelona, a chemical company and a leader in the PET packaging sector.
According to the Portuguese Investment Agency, with its potential for creating jobs and modernizing the Portuguese chemical industry, Artenius Sines is considered a project of national interest by the Portuguese government. In addition to its strategic importance for Portugal, when completed, the project will help increase the supply of PTA across Europe, which presently imports about 400,000 tons of the product from Asia each year.
The new GE Frame 6B gas turbine has been delivered to the Sines site, which is south of Lisbon, with commercial operation scheduled for early next year. Plans are to use natural gas as the primary fuel source and limit NOx emissions to 15 parts per million (at 15% O2).
The GE Frame 6B is one of the most widely used gas turbines ever manufactured. More than 1,100 of these units are in service or on order worldwide and have accumulated more than 60 million operating hours in a wide range of applications. Close to 30% of all 6Bs in operation are being used for cogeneration, located in countries on six continents.