The Catalyst Review May 2020 - 9

SPECIAL FEATURE I
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About the Author
Nick Barnette is an independent consultant, Chartered Engineer and Member of the IET. His background is in
Electronics and Mechatronics and he holds a Masters in Automatic Identification. He has a wide and deep interest
in multiple technology sectors and is currently managing an IoT project linked to the UK's smart motorways.

Industry Perspectives (continued from page 1)

The Polyflex Process will allow them this independence of action and since the number of grades that they need to produce
will be limited, the process will be easier to run, as well as being efficient and low cost. Making their own polypropylene
gives them a strong competitive advantage. by being able to be tailored exactly to their needs, both in capacity and
economics.
Third World Countries - In most third world countries, there may be import barriers for polypropylene. If they have a
refinery, it produces off-gas which is usually burnt, or at best used for fuel in the refinery. If they install the Polyflex process
next to the refinery, together with a splitter, they can polymerize their refinery propylene, which will save valuable resources
and use products which might ordinarily go to waste. This measure of independence together with lower costs will bring
them into a market where they are now restricted, by the high cost barriers of importing polypropylene. This can only be of
value, since as their market grows, so will their population benefit from polypropylene's many advantages.
Conclusions
The Polyflex process is a revolutionary polymerisation process, which by using refinery off-gas would increase the refinery's
income, as well as serve local markets. Ecology would also benefit from this concept. Convertors would also see advantages
of this process. In short, the Polyflex process offers the market a solution that other processes cannot. Clearly, emerging
economies can also benefit from the Polyflex process. If they possess a local refinery, so much the better. They can market
the PP that they produce through a network of local distributors. These distributors would jump at the opportunity of selling
PP polymers and more attractive prices than those of imported material. They would be able to guide the refinery as to what
types of PP grades would be most attractive, for the local market. They might even be able to export PP to their neighbours
who do not have PP production facilities. The impact on the major PP producers would be negligible, since supplying PP to
smaller countries is for them rather expensive.
About the Author
Patrick Ellis has been working in the polypropylene industry since 1976 and has gained experience with most
of the commercially available processes. He has worked for Hercules, Himont and Neste, as well as carrying out
consultancy projects for ExxonMobil and Amoco. He has identified opportunities that exist to offer refineries
and converters a tailor-made low-cost polymerisation process, hence the Polyflex Process. He can be reached
at: PAMEllis1@aol.com

The Catalyst Review

May 2020

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/analytics/assets/pwc-ai-analysis-sizing-the-prize-report.pdf https://academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238 https://academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238

The Catalyst Review May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review May 2020