GS Caltex Corporation has awarded the contract for a grassroots ethylene mixed feed cracker (MFC) project to KBR, Inc. GS Caltex is a company owned by South Korea’s GS Energy and U.S.-based Chevron Corp.

The new plant will use naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas and refinery off-gases as its main feedstocks. It will be constructed in the South Korean southern city of Yeosu where GS Caltex’s 790,000 barrel-per-day refinery is located.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide its innovative Selective Cracking Optimum Recovery (SCORE™) technology license and basic engineering design services for a 700 KTA ethylene mixed feed cracker.

“We are honored to be selected as the licensor for GS Caltex’s first ethylene plant,” said John Derbyshire, KBR president, Technology. “SCORE™ technology is highly flexible and enables producers to maximize profitability through superior yield, energy, and operational performance.”

KBR has been a leader in olefin plant design, construction and technology development for more than 50 years. Since 1990, more than 20 new ethylene plants with a combined capacity of 13 million metric tons per year have been brought on-stream using KBR’s cracking technologies and flexible plant designs to produce ethylene, propylene and other byproducts from a variety of feedstocks.