Celanese Corporation, the US-based specialty materials company, on November 11, 2015 announced its plans to expand its acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) capacity in North America. Celanese will implement a series of low capital debottlenecks in its Clear Lake (Texas) acetic acid facility and expects to hike the production by 150 kilo tonne (kt). The current nameplate capacity of the facility is 1,350 kt per annum. The debottlenecks will happen in stages over the next several years with the expectation that total US output will have a nameplate capacity of more than 1,500 kt per annum by 2016.
Celanese has also begun work on a 150 kt expansion of its Clear Lake VAM facility increasing plant capacity to 450 kt – making it the largest and most efficient VAM plant in the world. The expansion will be complete in 2018.
In addition, Celanese has decided to expand the high end of its engineered materials product portfolio with the initial introduction of two premium industrial grades of polyether ether ketone (PEEK) in the second half of 2016.
