The Catalyst Review - February 2015 - 11

SPECIAl FEATuRE
One applies a methanol loop with propylene
and H2
Figure 7. HPPO technology − principles of reactor technology.
O2 as feed stock. In 2014 Evonik has been
awaiting the start-up of a 300 kT/year plant in
Jilin/China. The technology uses MFI/Ti silicate
catalyst, prepared with a very low Na content. The
catalyst has high meso-macro porosity and is using
3.0 mm extruded participles (Figure 7).
The consumption of propylene is 0.77 kg/kg PO
and the consumption of H2
O2 is 0.69 kg/kg PO.
The PO production costs are about $2k/ton. Small
amounts of aldehydes are removed from the
methanol loop with a 3%Ru/Al2
process pressure is about 30 bars and the reactor
temperature is less than 100 o
O3 catalyst. The
C. The reaction is
very exothermic with a ΔHrxn
process yield is about 95%.
=-220 kJ/mol. The
Source: Evonik at CATCON2014
IV.2. Dr. D. Ostgard, from Evonik, presented an
excellent history of the original technology to
produce BDO (1.4-butanediol) and the recent re-emergence of the Reppe technology in China. One used originally formaldehyde
and acetylene as feedstocks, followed by butadiene, then propylene and bio-mass sugar. During the presentation the advantages
and disadvantages of the different routes were discussed. The preference of China is to use the old Reppe technology and China will
become the world leader with a 50% market share in 2017.
IV.3. Dr. M. Leseman, from RTI International, showed in his presentation how his organization addresses step-out innovation by
combining materials science and process development with a staff of 3700 people and a budget of $780 Million. Their key activity
areas include syngas, biomass, natural gas, carbon capturing and industrial water. Using syngas desulfurization as an example, he
showed how they can take a lab concept all the way to commercialization. He also showed their fluidized bed based advanced
synthetic natural gas (SNG) process. In terms of CO2
and this is used to make ethylene oxide (EO) from ethylene.
Session v: Advanced Technologies in Fuels and Additives Production
The final session on the second day of the conference had three papers. Short summaries of these papers are described below.
V.1. Dr. F. Dautzenberg, from Serenix Corporation, talked
Figure 8. New methanol technology *
about approaches to syngas production and about some of
its utilizations. He indicated that certain reactor and catalyst
improvements may be realized in the future. Advanced coal
gasification technologies are already in operation in China with
ample opportunities for catalyst improvements downstream
of the gasification reactor. He further indicated that Catalytic
Partial Oxidation (CPO) is becoming a reality, provided that
certain process identifications are pursuit such as the use of
special ceramic catalyst supports with unusable heat transfer
characteristics. There is also a game changing methanol
technology under development that shows great potential and
allows pursuing methanol to gasoline and DME as diesel fuel
(Figure 8). Finally, Dr. Dautzenberg believes that not too long
from now there will be solar technology applications producing
hydrogen by water-electrolysis and syngas by high temperature
catalysts.
utilization RTI is developing CO2 → CO + [O]. The [O] is captured with a Me-oxide
Source: Serenix at CATCON2014
V.2. Mr. P. Tijm, from the Standard Alcohol Company, described the GTL technology that his company has been pursuing. The
company was founded in 2000 and began to produce fuel alcohols in a unit of 500 barrels per day in 2012. The original catalyst
based on MoS2
was exploited by Dow in the past. By using Avantium's nano-flow technology, the MoS2
The Catalyst Review
catalyst has been optimized
to allow less than 1% deactivation per 1000 hours aiming at run length of about three years before regeneration. The catalyst has
February 2015
11

The Catalyst Review - February 2015

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