business review

Sasol Technology
(Proprietary) Limited

Profile    Sasol Technology is a highly skilled Group business partner in the fields of research and development, technology and innovation, new business development, business optimisation, engineering services and project management. Through its integrated, multidisciplinary approach, the company fulfils a key strategic role in helping Sasol to unlock new business value and to sustain its growth and competitive advantage.

Business review  Sasol is undergoing a notably vigorous phase of growth and diversification. The magnitude of the Group’s combined capital projects and their sophisticated technological requirements is bringing new challenges and opportunities to Sasol Technology.
Sasol is committed to its largest capital investment programme since completing the giant Secunda synfuels and petrochemical operations almost 20 years ago.

Investments for growth maintained  On the strength of the year’s many achievements, Sasol Technology remains well placed to conceptualise, develop and manage sophisticated projects, along with new-generation research, design and other value-adding technological programmes. The company continues to expend substantial sums on developing cutting-edge human capital, management systems, infrastructure and other vital technological resources to empower Sasol’s longer-term growth ambitions.

This growing commitment will enable the Group to remain at the forefront of the scientific, engineering and technological disciplines that form the foundation of Sasol’s drive to sustain technological excellence and global competitiveness in the new century.

The year’s many gratifying scientific and technological achievements were reflected in all critical functional areas, including research and development, process innovation, design and optimisation, new business development, environmental engineering and support services, risk management, business optimisation, engineering and project management.

Advancing Fischer-Tropsch technology  The large projects to develop Sasol’s first two international gas-to-liquids (GTL) ventures have entered their front-end engineering design (FEED) phase. Chevron Nigeria Limited is building a GTL plant in Nigeria utilising Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate (SPD) technology; Sasol Synfuels International (SSI) and Qatar Petroleum will build a GTL plant in Qatar. Foster Wheeler Energy in the United Kingdom is executing FEED under Sasol Technology’s project management expertise. The GTL plants will incorporate Sasol’s unique SPD process.

The Group envisages further growth opportunities by developing other GTL plants in some of the world’s gas-rich regions. Considerable resources therefore continue to be invested into the Group’s SPD and other Fischer-Tropsch technologies. Sasol Technology is developing improved Fischer-Tropsch processes, including more effective catalysts.

The cobalt catalyst for the SPD process and the iron catalyst for the Sasol Advanced Synthol (SAS) process were both improved substantially during the year. Once refined further, these improved catalysts will form crucial elements of Sasol’s next generations of SPD and SAS technologies.

Sasol Technology has also progressed considerably in identifying new opportunities to reduce the capital and operating costs of GTL plants, while improving their yields and efficiencies. Such advances will help Sasol to secure the long-term competitiveness of its GTL technology against other emergent Fischer-Tropsch processes.

Catalyst development will remain one of the strategic priorities of future research and development (R&D) programmes. Besides its proven capabilities in developing new-generation catalysts, Sasol Technology continues to work in beneficial partnership with catalysis research specialists at the University of Cape Town. The company also collaborates with other major universities in other specialised research programmes.

To complement such centres of excellence, Sasol Technology is helping to establish a catalyst research programme at Saint Andrews University in Scotland. Sasol Technology’s co-establishment of a specialised process technology facility at Twente University near Enschede in the Netherlands, along the lines of the Scottish initiative, is also well advanced.

In another initiative to facilitate Sasol’s GTL ambitions, the new Sasol and Engelhard joint-venture production facility at De Meeren in the Netherlands will commence production in the year ahead. The plant will produce the Sasol Fischer-Tropsch catalyst for the GTL plants under development.

Pivotal role in bringing gas to South Africa  Sasol Technology is progressing with the multibillion-rand Group project to transport natural gas from the Temane and Pande fields to customers in Mozambique and South Africa. A project team completed the comprehensive feasibility study ahead of Sasol’s decision to proceed with the project. Basic engineering for the design and construction of the field facilities and the gas pipeline will be completed in the year ahead.

Sasol Technology is working closely with Sasol Petroleum International (SPI), Sasol Gas, SSF and SCI. The Mozambican pipeline will be routed directly to Secunda, where natural gas will be used as a supplementary feedstock for SSF’s synfuels and chemical production facilities.

Sasol Technology is working with SSF to install or modify the plant and infrastructure needed to reform natural gas. The front end of the SCI Sasolburg factory will be converted to accommodate natural gas as its sole hydrocarbon feedstock. The Sasolburg coal gasifiers will be decommissioned once the SCI factory converts to natural gas. The SSF and SCI conversion projects will be completed in 2004.

Unlocking new chemical opportunities  The Sasol Solvents and Sasol Olefins and Surfactants divisions have exciting growth plans in South Africa. Sasol Technology continues to work in fruitful value-adding partnerships with these and other SCI divisions to establish new production capacity, improve established assets and develop new products that enable further beneficiation of the Sasol treasure chest.

The third Sasol Olefins and Surfactants hexene train was commissioned successfully during the year. As with the other Secunda alpha olefin production units, the new train incorporates highly competitive Sasol process technology. The fourth hexene train and the second octene train are now in their early conceptual design phases.

Sasol Technology is also advancing the development of the next generation of proprietary process technology to extract hexene and octene from the Secunda olefins pool. To complement this programme, Sasol Technology is exploring alternative processes to produce additional volumes of hexene for international polyethylene customers once Sasol Olefins and Surfactants is extracting hexene at full capacity from the Secunda alpha olefins pool.

Sasol Solvents’ Secunda ethyl acetate plant was brought into operation successfully, yielding product on specification. It enables Sasol to add great value to much of the ethanol extracted from the fuel alcohol pool. The ethyl acetate plant incorporates novel process technology developed by Kvaerner Process Technology and Sasol Technology.

Sasol Technology is assisting Sasol Solvents with its two biggest projects to date: the n-butanol plant and the complex for the production of acrylic acid and acrylates. These facilities will use competitive technology licensed from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation of Japan. Basic engineering has commenced for these two Sasolburg projects, which will entail a combined investment of about R3 billion. Sasol Technology will manage both projects through to final commissioning.

Business optimisation creates more wealth  The successful business optimisation function continues to contribute tangibly to the bottom-line performance of Sasol businesses. The Group has a stronger focus on sweating existing assets and, during the year, higher returns were achieved from many of the established plants and related assets at Sasolburg and Secunda. In the previous year, an estimated R280 million of new value was added to the Group’s bottom line. A further R300 million was added during the year.

Working in partnership with Group businesses, Sasol Technology will continue to focus on new business optimisation opportunities to unlock large amounts of new business value without incurring large capital investments.