12-02-2018

UOP Russell fractionation plant for MarkWest Energy Partners

Honeywell today announced that its UOP Russell business will provide a fractionation plant capable of producing 60,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids (NGLs) to MarkWest Energy Partners. The company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX LP, will install the plant at its Hopedale facility located in Jewett, Ohio.

The fractionation system will recover propane, isobutane, normal butane and pentane – or natural gasoline, from mixed natural gas liquids for use in petrochemical manufacturing.

“A growing number of gas processors are investing in NGL fractionation technology,” said Craig Ranta, Honeywell’s business director for UOP Russell. “Today, our fractionation technologies produce more than 850,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids extracted from natural gas streams.”

Fractionation units are used to separate mixtures of extracted NGLs into individual pure components. The resulting products are used to manufacture a wide range of petrochemicals that are made into plastic resins, films and fibers, rubber, and fuel-blending components.

The UOP Russell fractionation plant is customized for the large capacity requirements of MarkWest, and it represents an expansion of UOP Russell’s portfolio of pre-engineered fractionation products.
“In less than 40 weeks, Honeywell now can provide fractionation units for de-ethanizers up to 125,000 barrels per day and for depropanizers up to 60,000 barrels per day,” Ranta said. “This allows customers to get onstream and begin reliably generating revenue even faster than before.”

MPLX is engaged in the gathering, processing and transportation of natural gas; the gathering, transportation, fractionation, storage and marketing of NGLs; and the transportation, storage and distribution of crude oil and refined petroleum products. MarkWest operates natural gas gathering systems in six states. Its natural gas processing complexes remove the heavier and more valuable hydrocarbon components from natural gas. The company currently operates natural gas processing complexes in the Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, Appalachia region, and Southwest region.

MarkWest’s assets include approximately 5.9 billion cubic feet per day of gathering capacity, 8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas processing capacity and 610,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity.