Invista’s new PTA technology offers ‘significant cost savings’
Invista Performance Technologies (IPT) has developed an upgraded platform that it claims offers licensees significant production efficiencies.
“The PTA and polyester industries are extremely competitive” said Mike Pickens, IPT president. “And, while our previous vintages of technology provided significant competitive advantage compared to alternatives, this new PTA platform drives our customers’ variable and capital costs even lower. Our focus on process simplification, value engineering and layout optimization has resulted in a compact design that significantly improves the capital productivity.”
P8 delivers cost improvements through milder reactor conditions, improved energy integration and recovery. The process is a net electricity exporter with a reduced environmental footprint resulting from low energy and water usage and reduced waste generation. The net effect is a greater than $20 per tonne variable cost improvement compared to plants licensed just a few years ago and could be up to $40 per tonne advantage over competitors’ technologies, according to Invista.
“In this market environment, every tonne, every dollar must be optimised,” said Mr Pickens. “That’s why our focus has always been on safely and efficiently reducing variable costs and improving the capital productivity for our licensees. We have a proven track record of successful technology transfer with licensees quickly achieving design rates and performance parameters. With their reliable and efficient plants, most of our licensees continue to operate at high rates even in this arduous PTA market.”
