Since its commercial operation in September 1998, PON is engaged in the petrochemical industry, producing oxoalcohol products, namely, 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH), iso-butanol (IBA) dan normal-butanol (NBA). PON’s Plant is located in Gresik industrial estate, East Java. PON’s Plant applies the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation technology and Synthetic Gas oleh Haldor Topsoe technology for the Octanol Plant, and CO2 Removal & Membrane-PSA technology from DOW-UOP.
PON produces 2-EH, with a total capacity of 135,000 MTPA, IBA with a total capacity of 15,000 MTPA, and NBA with a total capacity of 1,000 MTPA. Starting from 2014, PON has begun to produce Liquid Carbondioxide (LC02) with a total capacity of 36,000 MTPA.
PON is the sole producer of oxoalcohol in Indonesia, with 80% of its sales consisting of export sales. PON’s future development is focused on product portolio optimization by managing margin destroying product, i.e., by shifting from the IBA products, which have contributed negative margin for the last 5 years, to Neopenthyl Glycol (NPG) products.
In 2020, PON’s total oxoalcohol production volume amounted to 128,058 MT, a 14.72% decrease compared to 2019 production of 150,155 MT. Whereas LCO2 production amounted to 16,613 MT in 2020, a 31.18% decrease compared to 2019 production of 24,141 MT. The decrease in PON’s production in 2020 was driven by a scheduled shut-down to replace the plant’s catalyst that lasted 25 days and an unplanned shut-down that lasted 13 days to repair and replace the damaged Tubes Reformer.