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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has recently
announced that PKN Orlen plans to use the UOP Q-Max and Phenol 3G
technologies to produce 200,000 metric tons per year of phenol at its facility
in Plock, Poland, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
UOP is providing a license for the technology, in addition to basic
engineering design services, plus key equipment, catalysts and adsorbents and
technical services.
As part of the project, UOP will provide a cumene
unit and a phenol unit with alpha methyl styrene hydrogenation. When completed,
the new complex would increase PKN’s market position in high-margin
petrochemicals including phenol and acetone.
"These technologies make it
possible for PKN Orlen to extend its benzene production into phenol and
acetone derivatives," said Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager of
Honeywell UOP’s Petrochemicals & Refining Technologies business. "By doing
so, PKN Orlen would be in a position to meet the growing demand for phenol
and other petrochemicals in Poland and even become a net exporter of those
products."
Cumene is the primary building block for making phenol and its
derivatives. UOP’s Q-Max process converts benzene and propylene into
high-quality cumene at low benzene-to-propylene ratios using regenerable
catalysts that reduce byproduct transalkylation catalyst requirements, and lower
utility consumption and capital requirements for downstream fractionation
equipment.
The UOP 3G Phenol unit converts cumene into phenol with high
yields and product quality, and low utility consumption. The phenol product is
converted into plastics and other related materials, including bisphenol-A, a
building block for polycarbonate plastics, and phenolic resins used to make
durable laminated boards and industrial adhesives.
When integrated, the
two technologies offer even lower utility consumption and a high yield of
phenol, with outstanding operating flexibility, on-stream time, reliability and
safety. UOP Q-Max technology is currently licensed in 26 units worldwide, with a
total capacity of more than 9 million tons per year. The UOP phenol technology
also is licensed in 22 units worldwide, with a total phenol capacity of more
than 5 million tons per year.
As MRC informed before,
in September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN orlen had licensed the UOP
MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and
improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN Orlen
facility in Plock, Poland, was in the basic engineering stage
then.
Phenol is one of the main feedstocks for the production of
bisphenol A (BPA), which, in its turn, is used for the production of
polycarbonate (PC).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated consumption of polycarbonate (PC) granules (excluding imports
and exports to/from Belarus) rose in January-May 2020 by 19% year on year to
38,900 tonnes (32,700 tonnes a year earlier). |
