BP and partner Zhuhai Port Co. have received final approvals from the government of China to build a third purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Zhuhai, Guangdong, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The ‘Zhuhai 3’ plant will have a capacity of 1.25 million tpy and is expected to start up in late 2014. PTA is an important feedstock for polyester used worldwide in food packaging and textiles.

“This plant will be using BP’s latest proprietary technology and should make BP Zhuhai the most competitive PTA producer in the world," said Nick Elmslie, CEO of BP Global Petrochemicals. "As one of the largest PTA producers in the world, our aim is to invest continuously in the right projects as well as invest to improve the competitiveness of our PTA sites and PTA joint ventures globally.”

Liming Chen, president of BP China, added: “We are very glad to see the approval of this project which is an integral part of BP’s business portfolio in China. This investment demonstrates again our commitment to BP’s long term development in China, and reinforces our aspiration to grow in China.”

Zhuhai 3 joins two earlier phases of PTA units at the same location, bringing total capacity at the site to more than 2.7 million tpy. After the start-up of Zhuhai 3, BP’s worldwide net PTA capacity will be 8.25 million tpy.

“Zhuhai 3 will be the first to employ BP’s latest generation PTA technology," said Mark Wilson, president of Aromatics Asia and China Olefins & Derivatives. "This should deliver a step change in environmental performance, reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and other waste streams significantly.

"Compared with other conventional technologies, we expect the new plant to achieve 75% lower water discharge, 65% lower greenhouse gas emissions, and 95% lower solid waste generation, meeting and exceeding strict effluent discharge requirements."