Our engineers have developed a more efficient process to make the raw materials needed to manufacture many of today’s plastics and textiles. They are using new technology to lower production costs and raise efficiency off Singapore’s coast in the largest processing plant of its kind.
Shell already provides the technology to make around 40% of the world’s mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) for use in textiles and plastics. It has licensed the new, more efficient process for use in four chemical companies, and in Singapore is using this technology in one of its own plants for the first time.
Huck Poh, former General Manager of the Pulau Bukom manufacturing site, talks about the SEPC development in 2010
SEPC - Huck Poh, former General Manager, Pulau Bukom manufacturing site
Title: SEPC - Huck Poh, General Manager Pulau Bukom Refinery - from YouTube
Duration: 4:14 minutes
Huck explains how the refinery and cracker work together and the benefits of the recent upgrade and expansion.
SEPC - Huck Poh, General Manager Pulau Bukom Refinery - from YouTube Transcript
[Text displays]
A lengthy and illegible disclaimer or information
[Background music plays]
Bright, energetic music
[Video footage]
A Shell tanker truck drives by.
Close-up of two men in protective gear
Split screen: four scenes of various Shell employees in protective gear at work in various fields. The screen splits further into 16 scenes of various Shell employees, and then splits further into 64 small scenes. The screen flashes and moves so that the scenes become indistinct.
[Music ends]
[Text displays]
Shell people
[Huck Poh]
[General Manager, Pulau Bukom Refinery]
[Huck Poh]
‘'I’m Huck Poh. I’m the General Manager of Pulau Bukom Refinery. And today where you are seeing me is 50 metres up on a platforming unit, and on the skyline below the landscape, what you see is the new ethylene cracker project that is just being installed in Pulau Bukom. And I’m excited and privileged to be given the opportunity to lead this site, and I think you will understand why. Leaving aside the plant and the structure, I want you to cast your mind also to the site which is one of the islands where people have recreations, have barbecues and so on, and to be able to see the mingling of the two whilst running an industrial site like this, to me is a great opportunity and I love it. And I hope you will share the same. This is an exciting project for Shell because it increases the footprint of our chemical business in Asia-Pacific. ’’
[Video footage]
Huck Po addressing the camera. The SEPC plant is visible in the distance behind him. Huck Po turns to indicate the scene behind him.
Camera pans down from blue sky to show the refinery. Smoke or vapour issues from some of the tall chimneys.
From an elevated position, the camera pans out from a closer shot of one of the large tanks in the refinery to show the refinery, outlined against blue sea.
From an elevated position, the camera pans slowly from left to right, showing the refinery in the foreground and a tiny island just metres from the island on which the refinery is located.
From an elevated position, the camera pans slowly from left to right showing an access road running through the refinery.
From an elevated position, looking through tall chimneys, a long, low tanker can be seen making slow progress just off the island’s shoreline.
[Huck Poh]
‘'And Pulau Bukom gives us a good opportunity to do integrations of the oil and chemical interface business, to maximize our margin generation potential. And that is an exciting proposition, especially in the midst of the slowdown in the economy, that this will give us the margin uplift that we need. It also gives us the opportunity by the enlargement of the size of this complex, to get that cost competitive advantage that comes with it. The integration is important for two things: one, that with the growth in the Asia-Pacific and Bukom, being a relatively older plant, and we are above 500,000 barrels in capacity per day, compared to strict new plants that are coming out in the 1 million barrels per day capacity level, what we need is to be able to get full integration between the oil and chemical business for long-term sustainability of the business in Singapore.’’
[Video footage]
Huck Po addressing the camera. The SEPC plant is visible in the distance behind him.
Aerial shot, which is slightly jerky as if taken from a helicopter, shows the refinery some distance below and in front. The shot moves from left to right, showing the refinery below.
Aerial view of a cluster of gigantic, squat, silo-type containers in the foreground on the island. The shot moves from left to right while maintaining focus on the containers.
Aerial view of the refinery below, showing a central, wide canal between two sections of the refinery. The shot moves from left to right, showing the refinery below.
Aerial view of the refinery. The ocean is visible on all sides of the small island, which is completely covered by the refinery. A port can be seen foreground. The shot moves from left to right while maintaining focus on the refinery below.
Aerial view of the side of the island which has the port. The shot follows the curve of the coastline while maintaining focus on the refinery below.
[Huck Poh]
‘'And that, to me, is about longevity and sustainability of the business in Singapore. And we are right in the heartland, where Singapore is also the petrochemical hub in the Asia-Pacific, close to the markets in China and India. And with that, given the logistic advantage of Bukom in Singapore, we will maximize that benefit to our advantage. If you look over the other side, the Pulau Bukom Refinery now is linked up to the Seraya Island, which is also another of our Shell installations which includes the Mono-Ethylene Glycol Unit, which has just been commissioned and is now connected by subsea lines.’’
[Video footage]
Huck Po addressing the camera. The SEPC plant is visible in the distance behind him.
Camera pulls out from focusing on a small boat sailing across the sea in the foreground to show refinery equipment in the foreground and more sections of refinery on a far shore across the water.
From an elevated position, the camera pans from left to right showing the vast Pulau Bukom Refinery.
[Animated sequence]
Map of Singapore and outlying islands of Jurong and Bukom.
[Graphic displays]
Shell logo
[Text displays]
Integration
Shell operations on Jurong Island –
Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site
[Animated sequence]
The camera zooms in on Bukom Island, which is depicted as three closely adjacent islands, each marked a different colour. Shell Facilities are indicated on the mainland.
[Text displays]
Shell Facilities
Bukom Island
[Animated sequence]
The Bukom Island group is lit up, and a line is drawn from one of its islands across the sea to the Shell Facilities on the mainland. The line is indicated as Undersea Pipelines.
[Graphic displays]
Shell logo
[Text displays]
Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex [SEPC] Project
[Video footage]
Huck Po addressing the camera. The SEPC plant is visible in the distance behind him. He turns to indicate an area behind and to his left. He then indicates an area behind and to his right.
Aerial footage of workers in red uniforms on a road in the refinery. The camera draws out slowly to show a vast section of the complex.
[Huck Poh]
‘'And, also, Bukom and the Jurong Island is now fully integrated as a petrochemical hub. And further down, besides the Seraya Island, are some of the other petrochemical installations that you see. And further down on the other side is already the Indonesian Islands. So in terms of location, yes, it is so important for us not just to run the business well, to ensure that the environment that we operate in is well taken care of and we have taken everything to minimize environmental impact. I was recruited in Pulau Bukom 25 years ago, so in some ways, I’m a son of Bukom. To see Bukom develop in the earlier days, from being merely one of the largest refineries in Singapore to one of the flagship setups for Shell globally, that is a thrill that is beyond belief, and I’m really excited, I’m passionate just to see the journey that we have come through and all the efforts over the years that have gone into making this place what it is today. And I can tell you the staff down there are equally excited as I am.’’
[Video footage]
Huck Po addressing the camera. The SEPC plant is visible in the distance behind him.
Shell combined its own technology with one developed by Mitsubishi to create the OMEGA (Only MEG Advantage) process. Technical advances made it possible to take this process from the laboratory to a plant 50 times as big. The plant covers an area the size of several football fields and is powered by 210 kilometres (130 miles) of electric cable. The plant reached its full capacity within just two weeks and in 2010 was capable of producing 750,000 tonnes of MEG a year – that is 90,000 kilograms every hour.
“We’ve shown it works and is extremely efficient,” says Arthur Rots, Team Lead of the OMEGA design group.
The plant cost considerably less to build than its conventional equivalent. Running costs are lower, partly as the new process captures heat released by chemical reactions and reuses it to power water cooling units.
The processing plant on the island of Pulau Bukom pumps raw material — ethylene — to the plant on Jurong Island through 4.5 kilometres of pipelines (2.8 miles) below one of Asia’s busiest shipping lanes.
Here the ethylene passes through a steel container where it mixes with pure oxygen. The mixture then enters the giant reactors at the heart of the plant, each weighing about 1,400 tonnes.
Each reactor contains more than 13,000 tubes. Tubes in the reactors contain millions of catalysts. These porous silver-containing beads speed up chemical reactions. They are central to the process of turning raw materials into more valuable products. At 230-260° Celsius (446-500° Fahrenheit) the catalysts accelerate a chemical reaction between oxygen and ethylene to produce ethylene oxide.
In the conventional process to make MEG, ethylene oxide would be heated and fed to a reactor with water to ultimately produce the MEG. In the new process, however, the ethylene oxide flows into a reactor with carbon dioxide (CO2) and a clear syrupy liquid catalyst helps convert the mixture into ethylene carbonate.
The ethylene carbonate enters the second reactor where it reacts with water to produce MEG. The process converts 99.2% of the ethylene oxide in the process into MEG, compared to 90% in the conventional process. This eliminates the cost of storing and shipping any secondary products.
The new process consumes less steam and produces less waste water than a traditional plant with the same capacity. The OMEGA process also produces less CO2 per tonne of MEG.
Thousands of workers from more than 20 countries helped to create Shell’s largest integrated refinery and petrochemical complex.
Shell successfully upgraded the ethylene cracker on Bukom Island in early 2015, boosting production of ethylene by more than 20%.
Shell Chemicals focuses on producing basic or “building-block” chemicals, for sale in bulk to other chemicals companies or industries.
We develop innovative technologies to find and safely unlock more, and affordable, energy from ever harder-to-reach places.
Human solutions to global challenges: find out how you can develop your career in our technical teams.
