Aker Kvaerner has announced it has finished a series of tests on a new Chinese Pure Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant, which show the facility is working well.

The 450,000 tonnes per annum plant, which operates a purification process based on the presence of a palladium catalyst, comfortably met a series of evaluations.

Wim van der Zande, President of AK Process, commented: 'This plant will make a significant impact on the availability of locally produced, high quality PTA. This is a project that we can all be justifiably proud to be involved with and we look forward to further successful co-operation on future projects.'

Developed by the Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibre Company in conjunction with Aker Kvaerner and DuPont, the plant's output, PTA, is used in a wide range of applications.

Chief among these uses are the manufacture of polyester fibres, resins and films.

The plant has been in commercial operation since July 2003, following a two-year development process to implement DuPont's advanced PTA technology.

Aker Kvaerner has used this technique in projects around the world and claims to own 20 per cent of the world PTA production capacity.