Ary Silveira is honored by the petrochemical sector of Bahia
Engineer Ary Barbosa Silveira, recognized in the petrochemical and refining sector throughout the country, received a just tribute on the occasion of the Bahia Oil & Gas Energy Fair, held last May.
Ary graduated from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo and has a postgraduate degree in petroleum refining from the University of Brazil/Petrobras CENAP. Ary was employed by Petrobras for 30 years, until 1987, and participated in the construction of all the company's refineries implemented to date.
Due to his constant visits to Japanese refineries and petrochemical plants, he was invited in 1972, on the recommendation of Petroquisa, to participate in the group that studied the implementation of the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex, which initially included numerous Japanese companies in the petrochemical sector, bringing their technologies to the Complex.
Ary served as the Managing Director of COPENE, a company responsible for implementing the Raw Materials Center and the Utilities Center, as well as the entire infrastructure of the complex. In 1978, with the completion of the implementation of COPENE and its associates, he began to participate in Petroquímica da Bahia, a company of the Mariani group.
He also served as the Superintendent Director of Petroquímica do Barreiro, in Portugal. His remarkable time at the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex gives him the credentials to speak about the importance of reorganizing this complex, which, in his opinion, deserves special care for its recovery.
On June 29th of this year, the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex celebrated 46 years since its integrated operation began. After almost half a century of implementation, the complex, also called Polo, is outdated and needs to be modernized to remain competitive with other complexes with larger scale and current technologies. It continues to be the largest Industrial Complex in the Southern Hemisphere. Today, it is no longer limited to petrochemical activity, but has industries with a wide range of activities, such as BYD, which has become a new milestone.
According to Ary, “the complex needs to proceed as BASF does in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which has been operating for a century but is continually modernized. In fact, Germany has always been a world leader in the chemical industry. Before the Second World War, there was a prominent chemical company, IG Farben, formed by the merger of synthetic dye producers. After the fall of Stalingrad, as Germany lost access to oil from the Caucasus, such as Baku, fuel for all vehicles began to be synthesized from coal in underground plants.”
Today, Ary works as an advisor to numerous companies linked to the area, such as AP Engenharia, Dax Oil Refino and FLUXO Soluções Integradas, where he provides consultancy for the plastic waste recycling market, within the sector's circular economy program.