Petrochemical Holding GmbH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Company type | GmbH |
|---|---|
| Industry | Investment holding; petrochemicals; industrial projects |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Iakov Goldovskiy [1] |
| Website | https://www.petrochemical.at/ |
Petrochemical Holding GmbH (often Petrochemical Holding or PCH) is an Austria-based investment holding company focused on petrochemical and related industrial projects.[2] It is a major shareholder in DrasChem Specialty Chemicals, a private free-zone company planning a sodium cyanide plant at the Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (SIDPEC) complex near Alexandria, with a three-phase plan that includes a later stage for sodium-ion battery components.[3][4]
The company's operations start in 1996 in Eastern Europe, with later activity in other regions.[2][5]
In 2024, Petrochemical Holding and Czech company Draslovka announced sodium cyanide project in Egypt, listing Iakov Goldovskiy as president of Petrochemical Holding and describes a first-phase investment figure of $160 million with 80% of output intended for export.[1] Arabic-language Egyptian media published parallel summaries of the same meeting and figures.[6][7]
In November 2024, Egyptian press reported an official decision approving a private free zone for DrasChem at the SIDPEC complex site, including a stated area of 157,000 m2 and conditions that include export requirements and environmental compliance measures such as “zero liquid discharge” (ZLD).[8]
In 2026, DrasChem's phase I plan was described as $200 million with annual production of 50,000 tons of sodium cyanide, and a phase III plan for sodium-ion battery components. Petrochemical Holding is the largest shareholder in DrasChem.[3]
Operations
Petrochemical Holding is an investment holding group focused on industrial projects related to gas processing, petrochemicals, and related sectors, including integrating multiple projects into industrial complexes.[2] The company has investments and projects in multiple countries and sectors (for example, RAFO refinery, PET granulate, and Sodium cyanide).[5][9][9]
Egypt project
DrasChem's Egypt plan centers on a sodium cyanide plant at the SIDPEC complex near Alexandria, with production targeted to begin in 2028 after phase I completion and with later phases described as including derivative products and sodium-ion battery components.[3][4][10] The facility going to be “Middle East’s 1st” sodium cyanide production facility and links planned output to gold extraction and battery manufacturing.[3] It involves a first-phase capacity of 50,000 tons and investment of about $200 million.[11][12][13][4][14][15]
Battery-related research
In 2025, the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena described work on sodium-ion batteries that use lignin-derived hard carbon as an electrode material, under a project presented as “ThüNaBsE.”[16] Pv magazine summarized the same research as a 1 Ah prototype sodium-ion cell using lignin-based hard carbon, and it noted that an industrial advisory board for the project included Petrochemical Holding GmbH (Vienna).[17]
Petrochemical Holding GmbH was included in the industrial advisory board for the lignin-based sodium-ion battery project.[16][18][19]