Chevron Phillips Chemical has announced plans to expand its propylene business with a Final Investment Decision (FID) for a new C3 splitter unit. The unit’s location will be in Baytown, Texas, US, within the company’s Cedar Bayou facility. Its expected capacity is 454 kta with targeted start up in 2023. The company chose S&B Engineers and Constructors to engineer, procure and build the project. Site construction activities will commence in January 2022. The C3 splitter will convert a refinery grade mixture of propylene and propane into a high purity propylene product. Propylene is essential to the production of key building blocks for many household and industrial applications, including polypropylene, propylene oxide and acrylonitrile. These chemicals are also used in the production of plastics for several packaging applications and durable consumer products. Polypropylene is also central to the manufacturing of plastic parts for various industries including the automotive sector.