Process technologies for tomorrow's petrochems
15 Jan 2000
An important part of any Achema is the Congress, a wide-ranging series of technical conferences held every day of the show. This year around 10 per cent of all visitors (23,618) had booked in advance to learn more about recent engineering developments, many of which could also be seen around the halls.
Some subjects, of course, do not lend themselves to glossy displays on spotlighted stands. Process technologies, for example, are perhaps best explained by a detailed presentation of a process flow diagram, rather than a snatched five-minute conversation on a stand. With this in mind, the various conference sessions on new process routes were well attended.
Several German contractors took advantage of home territory to announce collaborative developments in processes for the petrochemicals industry. Linde, for example, presented an acetylene-based route to the important intermediate 1,4-butanediol that it has developed in partnership with the Korean company Yukong. The process follows the conventional one of synthesising butynediol from acetylene and formaldehyde, and then a two-stage hydrogenation of the butynediol to butanediol - a precursor of tetrahydrofuran for fibres and solvents, and polybutylene terephthalate for plastics. Although the route might be familiar, key to the new process are the three catalysts for each stage, and the much lower operating pressures required.
A direct route to butanediol, from butane feedstock, was also presented as the result of another collaboration, this time between Lurgi and BP Chemicals. The Geminox process involves the production of maleic anhydride by the catalytic oxidation of butane in a fluidised bed reactor, followed by hydrogenation of the maleic anhydride directly to butanediol in a fixed bed reactor.
The hydrogenation reaction is the key step - combining BP's catalyst know-how with Lurgi's hydrogenation expertise. Compared with alternative routes to butanediol, Geminox has fewer process steps, lower capital and running costs, and in butane has a more readily available feedstock than acetylene, butadiene or propylene oxide.
