An affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) has awarded Germany’s Linde Group a contract to build a carbon dioxide (CO2) utilisation plant at Jubail in Saudi Arabia.

The United Jubail Petrochemical Company (United) awarded Linde the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the plant, which will be one of the world’s largest CO2 plants when completed.

The scope of works for the scheme includes a unit to compress and purify 1,500 tonnes a day (t/d) of CO2 from United’s ethylene glycol plants. This will be then supplied to three other Sabic affiliates for use in the production of methanol and urea.

Another 200 t/d of food grade CO2 will also be produced and offered to the local food and beverage industry.

Linde will execute the EPC without a partner. The budget has not been disclosed and the plant is expected to take 24 months to construct, coming onstream in late 2015.

The purification and liquefaction plant is the first of its type to be constructed in Saudi Arabia and Sabic has stated that it hopes to develop similar schemes in the near future.