Shell Chemical Appalachia LLC (Shell) announced its decision to build a major petrochemical complex leveraging the abundant shale gas in western Pennsylvania on June 7, 2016. Now operational, the Shell Polymers Monaca plant has a designed output of 1.6 million tonnes annually and is ready to serve customers with high-quality, competitive products. The plant is strategically located within 700-mile radius of 70 percent of the U.S. polyethylene market adjacent to the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA.
The Shell Polymers Monaca plant features a state-of-the-art Innovation Center with various processing machines including production scale Blown Film Lines. After several years of commercial and technical discussions and finally a film trial in our Augsburg test-center, Shell decided to purchase three Film Lines from Hosokawa Alpine. The installed equipment includes a 75mm Mono-Layer Line along with state-of-the-art 5-Layer and 9-Layer X-Die Blown Film Lines.
The COVID pandemic delayed the installation and start-up of the equipment targeted for the Innovation Center, but today all three Film lines are fully functional and a great source of product development for the Flexible Packaging Industry.
The Mono-Layer Blown Film Line has the capability to run both High and Low Stalk, while the Five-Layer, and Nine-Layer Barrier Film Line can replicate hundreds of film products. Applications include a wide range of converter grade films to sophisticated oxygen barrier films for food packaging.
All three lines showcase Hosokawa Alpine’s latest technologies, including Alpine’s X-DIE and our newest Single Inlet High Performance air-ring.
We cannot understate the impact of having (3) production scale lines available to the industry for resin and product development.
Shell has done an amazing job promoting its new Innovation Center and frequently highlights the equipment in its social media campaigns. In addition to opportunities afforded to customers for product development it provides Alpine American the option to run trials for domestic customers without having to leave the U.S.
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in this project from start to finish and for all their hard work making this a huge success. A special thanks to our field technicians and engineers for their excellent service and support throughout the process.
Hosokawa Alpine American, North America’s leading supplier of Blown Film Extrusion Equipment serving every Flexible Packaging application; including film for single layer bag lines to the most technically advanced multi-layer Barrier Film Lines. Alpine’s renowned X-Die continues to evolve and provides ultimate performance in layer-to-layer and thickness control, and as always, is the fastest purging Blown Film Die commercially available. Alpine’s newest SELECT Extrusion series, high performance Single Inlet V-Ring and IBC, integrated annealing system, and newest Winder designs, all compliment the X-Die for the ultimate in Blown Film production. Additionally, Alpine has pioneered high performance Machine Direction Orientation Technology for over 25 years. Our latest advancements have revolutionized the MDO process opening new and exciting opportunities in the “Circular Economy.”
Alana Carr
Inside Sales & Marketing Manager
Hosokawa Alpine American, Inc.