SASOL APPROVES BUTANOL PLANT

SYNTHETIC fuel producer Sasol said on Tuesday it had approved an R835-million capital budget to build a new butanol plant with a capacity of 150000 tons a year. Sasol said in a statement basic engineering for the plant is likely to be completed by March 2000 and the plant is expected to enter production during 2002. “Most of the n-butanol and the derivatives of butanol will be exported offshore and will include sales to Mitsubishi Chemical Corp as part of an offtake agreement with Sasol,” the company said. The plant will be built at either Sasol’s Secunda or Sasolburg facilities in South Africa. It will use competitive proprietary hydroformylation technology licensed from Mitsubishi Chemical.