Petrochemical Projects Archive for June 2007

June 30, 2007

BASF Started up New Alkylethanolamines (AEOA) Plant in Geismar, Louisiana One Month Ahead of Schedule

The new plant will produce over 20 specialty amines, on top of the existing amine production facilities at the Louisiana. The Geismar plant will increase BASF’s worldwide production capacity for AEOA (alkylethanolamines) by 40 percent which is backward integrated with its existing ethylene oxide production at the site. BASF also operates AEOA plants at its Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

June 23, 2007

Hanwha in Talks with Saudi Arabia for US$6.5 Billion Delayed

Chemical Information for Propane

Applications

1. Propane can be used as fuel in cooking on many barbecues, portable stoves, and in motor vehicles.
2. Domestic and industrial fuel - Propane is the fastest growing fuel source in the Third World, especially in China and India replacing the traditional woods and coals. Propane is usually shipped as LPG, a blend of propane and butane. The warmer the country, the higher the butane content, commonly 50/50 and sometimes reaching 75% butane.
3. Refrigeration - Propane is also instrumental in providing off-the-grid refrigeration, also called gas absorption refrigerators. Made popular by the Servel company, propane-powered refrigerators are highly efficient, do not require electricity, and have no moving parts. Refrigerators built in the 1930s are still in regular use, with little or no maintenance. However, certain Servel refrigerators are subject to a recall for CO poisoning.
4. Vehicle fuel - The advantage of propane is its liquid state at room temperature and moderate pressure. This allows fast refill times, affordable fuel tank construction, and ranges comparable to (though still less than) gasoline. Meanwhile it is noticeably cleaner (both in handling, and in combustion), results in less engine wear (due to carbon deposits) without diluting engine oil (often extending oil-change intervals), and until recently was a relative bargain in North America.

Chemical Information and Process Technology

Propane is one of the feedstock for petrochemical industry, found mainly from the petroleum products either during refining or gas processing. Propane is not produced for its own sake, but as a byproduct of two other processes: natural gas processing and petroleum refining. The processing of natural gas involves removal of butane, propane, and large amounts of ethane from the raw gas, to prevent condensation of these volatiles in natural gas pipelines.

Additionally, oil refineries produce some propane as a by-product of production of cracking petroleum into gasoline or heating oil. The supply of propane cannot be easily adjusted to account for increased demand because of the by-product nature of propane production. About 85% of U.S. propane is domestically produced. The United States imports about 10-15% of the propane consumed each year. Propane is imported into the United States via pipeline and rail from Canada, and by tankers from Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Norway and the United Kingdom. After it is produced, North American propane is stored in huge salt caverns located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, Mont Belvieu, Texas, and Conway, Kansas. These salt caverns were hollowed out in the 1940s and can store up to 80 million barrels of propane, if not more. When the propane is needed, most of it is shipped by pipelines to other areas of the Midwest, the North, and the South, for use by customers. Propane is also shipped by barge and rail car to selected U.S. areas.

Petrochemical industry relies heavily on gas as the feedstock. Propane together with butane are blended to produce LPG for the petrochemical industry. Some petrochemical crackers use LPG as the feedstock for further cracking into ethylene, propylene and C4 streams or known as butylenes.

Chemical Information for POM (PolyOxyMethylene)

Chemical Information and Process Technology

Mass Balance on POM (Polyoxymethylene)

3 Formaldehyde à Trioxane
Trioxane + 3 Ethylene Glycol à 3 Dioxolane + 3 Water
Polymerization of Trioxane + Dioxolane à 6 POM Copolymer

To produce 1 ton (1000kg) of POM, using the above equation; raw materials needed are as shown in Table below:

Raw Materials	Amount (kg)
Formaldehyde	2000
Ethylene Glycol	1000

Additional raw materials needed are boron trifluoride etherate and water.

Calculation

The total equation for POM is as follows
12 Formaldehyde + 3 Ethylene Glycol à 6 POM Copolymer

And the chemical formulas for each are:

12 H₂CO + 3 C₂H₆O₂ à 6 [OCH₂]
2 H₂CO + 0.5 C₂H₆O₂ à 1 [OCH₂]

The equation is already balanced and for each 1 mol of POM,

• 2 mols of Formaldehyde is needed
• 0.5 mols of Ethylene Glycol is needed

Using the periodic table, the mass for each chemical can be obtained through back-calculation using their respective molecular weight. This is governed by the equation, mol = mass/molecular weight. The molecular mass for each is as follows:

H₂CO = (2 + 12 + 16)* 2 = 60
C₂H₆O₂ = (24 + 6 + 32) * 0.5 = 31
OCH₂ = (16 + 12 + 2)* 1 = 30

Market Information (Major Producers)

Company	POM Tradename	Type of POM
DuPont	Delrin	Copolymer
Korean Engineering Plastics	Kepital	Homopolymer
Ticona Engineering Plastics	Celcon, Hostaform	Homopolymer
BASF	Ultraform	Homopolymer

DuPont, Ticona, and BASF make up 90% of the French POM market. Demand increased by 8% in the United States, with a growth rate of 5% in Europe. In Asia, POM is mainly used in the electronics sector (CDs, videocassettes). In contrast, in Europe, it is largely used in the automobile industry and the electrical appliance sector.

KEPEL maintains 65% of Korea’s domestic market share. KEP POM production capability is at over 65,000 MT/yr, which can cover about 10% of worldwide copolymer demand since its third expansion of manufacturing facilities. KEP is now recognized worldwide for its product quality as evidenced by a number of certifications.

DuPont Overview
After four years of development DuPont patented its POM in 1956 and began construction of a 20-million pound annual-capacity production plant at Parkersburg, West Virginia, completed in 1960. As manufacture commenced, total research and development costs for the project topped $50 million dollars. DuPont fully expected to recover these costs by marketing Delrin® as a general substitute for nonferrous metals, but a patent dispute and stiff competition held profitability down. As a result, DuPont focused subsequent research efforts on more sophisticated and specialized engineering polymers.

Despite its troubled beginnings, Delrin® thrived in the long run and has been steadily improved over the years.

Today, Delrin® is widely acclaimed as

• lightweight but durable low wear,
• low friction plastic for electronic office equipment, advanced conveyor technology, and automotive applications.

Ticona Overview
Celcon / Hostaform POM is the world market leader of polyoxymethylene copolymers. The POM range includes grades for all processing methods and many different applications in various industries.It is characterized by excellent toughness and dimensional stability, outstanding spring and slip properties and good heat deflection temperature ratings and chemical resistance.

It is characterized by:

• excellent toughness and dimensional stability
• outstanding spring and slip properties
• good heat deflection temperature ratings and chemical resistance.

Korea Engineering Plastics (KEP) Overview
KEP was the first Company producing Polyacetal resin in Korea. The first commercial production of its POM began in 1988 under the brand name "KEPITAL". Ever since, KEP has been one of the engines for the growth of the Korean engineering plastic industry. KEPITAL copolymer resins can be found in engineered structural components of cutting-edge products, such as, automotive, electrical, electronics and industrial machinery.

KEPITAL has its own distinctive features such as:

• excellent thermal stability at molding
• exhibits better flow enabling high speed production
• ensures low deposit on the mold surface during processing.

BASF Overview
A line of acetal polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymer products under the tradename Ultraform® are available from BASF. BASF's Ultraform® is known for its:

• Ultraform has high strength and creep resistance.
• High abrasion and fatigue resistance together with the low friction are of major importance for the maintenance-free performance of the machine.
• Dimensional stability not only in production but during full product life and resistance to moisture, chemicals and
• The ball bearings made of Ultraform need no lubricant and withstand operating temperatures between - 40° and + 80° C. They can operate at rotation speeds of more than 5000 rpm. Other typical applications are in copiers, printers, pool cleaners, rotating beacons and domestic appliances.
• Chemical resistance of Ultraform® acetal, particularly with respect to conventional grades of gasoline (even those containing methanol and ethanol) as well as to diesel fuels

LIST of Other Global POM Producers

Table below shows the list of companies that produce POM worldwide:

Company Name	POM Tradename
Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products	Acetron®
Polymer Technology & Services
RTP Company
API - Kolon	Kocetal®
Aclo	Accucomp
ALBIS PLASTICS
Asahi	Lynex-T
Ashley Polymers	Ashlene®
BASF	Ultraform
Centroplast	Centrodal
Chase Plastics	CP Pryme®
Chem Polymer	Formax
Custom Resins	Duratel™
DSM Engineering Plastics	Plaslube®
DuPont	Delrin®
Ensinger	Tecaform™
Global Polymers
Korea Engineering Plastics (KEP)	Kepital®
Lati	Latan
Lati	Latilub
LG Chemicals	Lucet®
LNP	Lubriloy®
Mitsubishi	Iupital®
MRC Polymers	Talnex
Noveon	Stat-Tech™
Omnia Plastica
Owens Corning
Oxford Polymers
Polymer Resources
Polymersan	Polipom®
PolyOne	Edgetek®
Techmer Lehvoss	Plaslube®
Ticona	Celcon®
Ticona	Hostaform
Westlake Plastics	Pomalux®
Westlake Plastics	Dielux®
Zakłady Azotowe	Tarnoform
Zell-Metall	Zellamid®

Other Plant Location and Capacities

Asahi-DuPont POM (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd. is a joint venture between DuPont China Holding Co. Ltd. and Asahi Kasei Corporation of Japan. The JV company is focused on acetal copolymer resins in China production. The facility was started in spring 2004 with an initial annual production capacity of 20,000 tons that will be stepped up progressively to 60,000 tons.

Chemical Information for Formaldehyde

Chemical Information and Process Technology

Mass Balance on Formaldehyde

2 Methanol + Oxygen à 2 Formaldehyde + 2 Water

To produce 1 tonne (1000kg) of Formaldehyde, using the above equation; raw materials needed are as shown in Table 1:

Table 1: Raw materials for production of Formaldehdye

Raw materials	Amount (kg)
Methanol	1067
Oxygen	533

Calculation

The total equation for Formaldehyde is as follows:

1 mol Methanol + 0.5 mol Oxygen à 1 mol Formaldehyde + 1 mol Water

And the chemical formulas for each are:

CH₃OH + 0.5 O₂ à H₂CO + H₂O

For each 1 mol of Formaldehyde,

 1 mol of Methanol is needed

 0.5 mols of Oxygen is needed

Using the periodic table, the mass for each chemical can be obtained through back-calculation using their respective molecular weight. This is governed by the equation, mol = mass/molecular weight

The molecular mass for each is as follows:

CH₃OH = (12 + 3 + 16 + 1)* 1 = 32

O₂ = (32) * 0.5 = 16

H₂CO = (16 + 12 + 2)* 1 = 30

H₂O = (2 + 16)* 1 = 18