Heartland Polymers announced it has successfully commissioned its polypropylene (PP) plant and has begun initial production at the Heartland Petrochemical Complex (“The Complex”) in Alberta, Canada, where railcars are currently being loaded with North America’s newest source of PP using Alberta-based propylene feedstock.
“A safe commissioning of our polypropylene plant is a crucial step towards commercial production of Heartland Polymers,” said Jim Madro, Senior Vice President, Petrochemicals. “The PP Plant has been producing pellets since late June with polymer grade propylene (PGP) from our storage cavern. The entire Heartland Complex remains on schedule for an integrated start-up in the third quarter of this year, at which point Heartland will begin commercial production.”
Heartland Polymers will initially produce homopolymers with plans to add random copolymers in 2023. Once commercial production is underway, Heartland is expected to produce 525,000 tonnes of PP annually, filling approximately 18 rail cars per day, seven days a week.
“Heartland Polymers is anticipated to be one of the most reliable, service-oriented polypropylene producers in the industry,” said Yonas Kebede, Director, Polypropylene Sales and Marketing. “We have rail connections to every major shipping hub in North America, storage-in-transit to expedite delivery times, real-time GPS shipment tracking, and our geographic location means we are less vulnerable to extreme weather incidents that can cause downtime, additionally we have reliable access to one of the world’s largest sources of propane feedstock.”
