Our Chemicals area, present in Germany, Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia and Spain, is the world leader in the manufacture of raw materials such as linear alkylbenzene (LAB). To maintain and strengthen our leadership in this field, we launched the project to expand and improve one of our most emblematic plants: Puente Mayorga, in Cadiz.
This plant was built more than five decades ago, and has always had innovation and commitment to the environment at its heart. This project makes it unique in the world in terms of technology and sustainability in the field of surfactants.
HOW DID WE DO IT?
With a 100 million euro-investment, we updated the Cadiz chemical plant by expanding its capacity and introducing significant technological improvements that make it the first plant in Europe and the second in the world to use the latest generation of Detal catalysts (our plant in Canada was the first to roll out this innovation). Some of the highlights of this project include:
THE RESULT
This renovation project has enabled us to improve final product quality, reduce emissions, reduce fixed and associated costs, improve safety, optimize processes and improve the plant's energy efficiency.
Linear alkylbenzene (LAB) is the basis for most biodegradable detergents. In collaboration with UOP (Universal Oil Products), Cepsa came up with and developed Detal technology to produce LAB optimally.
The optimization of the Puente Mayorga chemical plant is a circular economy project that will greatly reduce the amount of waste generated. Detal technology enables us to increase safety during processes, as well as energy efficiency. It also allows us to reduce our environmental footprint and CO2 emissions, due to its low energy and electricity consumption.
The benefits of this technology are highly regarded, and it has become the most widely used in new LAB plants throughout the world since it was implemented at Cepsa's Bécancour chemical plant in Canada.
"Detal is a major step towards Cepsa becoming carbon neutral."
Project Capacity Expansion and Technology Revamp
Cepsa presents its unique LAB plant