Sadara Chemical Company’s 1,500 kilo-tonnes-a-year mixed-feed cracker (MFC) in Saudi Arabia has recently passed all of its performance tests.

The tests confirm that the performance targets for the furnaces and recovery section have been met.

The MFC uses French energy engineering firm TechnipFMC’s technology and design.

TechnipFMC’s scope included the technology and front-end engineering and design (feed) for the cracker and the design of the 12 furnaces.

The furnaces are split between cracking ethane and naphtha. A number of the furnaces were also designed to be able to switch between gas and liquid feedstock, based on market demand.

The work was executed by TechnipFMC’s operating centres in Claremont, California, US, and Zoetermeer, in the Netherlands.

The Sadara MFC is the only facility in Saudi Arabia with the flexibility to crack ethane/liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha simultaneously. It is the hub of 26 manufacturing assets that were built for the Sadara chemical complex, the largest of its kind ever built in a single phase.

Ethylene and propylene produced by the MFC are converted to a wide range of value-added plastics and specialty chemicals through Sadara’s other manufacturing units.

Sadara Chemical Company is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company.