Propylene oxide (PO), a gap of nearly 2 million tons! Which enterprises have joined the Bureau?

Propylene oxide (PO) is an important propylene derivative and a very important raw material of organic compounds, which has a broad development prospect. 

At present, the main processes for the preparation of propylene oxide are chlorohydrin, co-oxidation (PO/SM and PO/TBA) and direct oxidation of hydrogen peroxide (HPPO). These processes account for 28%, 42% and 28% of the global production capacity of more than 16 million tons per year in 2022, respectively. 

The production process of propylene oxide prepared by chlorohydrin method was the earliest to achieve industrialization, but it has serious environmental pollution and belongs to backward production capacity, which is being eliminated gradually. 

The main disadvantage of co-oxidation is the co-production of tert-butanol or styrene, which is restricted by the market situation, high equipment cost, long construction cycle, complex technological process and high propylene purity requirements. 

HPPO is a technology of direct oxidation of propylene to propylene oxide by hydrogen peroxide, that is, propylene is combined with hydrogen peroxide in methanol / water mixture at low temperature and low pressure, with the help of special titanium-silicon catalyst, selective oxidation takes place in a fixed-bed reactor to produce propylene oxide in one step. 

The technology is characterized by short process, simple process, high atomic utilization rate, low investment, mild reaction conditions, low energy consumption, basically no pollution, high product yield and few other by-products. 

Therefore, it is internationally recognized as green environmental protection production technology. 

Compared with chlorohydrin method and co-oxidation method, the advantage of HPPO technology is more obvious. 

Compared with the 10 000 t / a propylene oxide plant, in terms of investment, including sewage and waste residue treatment, the HPPO technology is about 52% of the chlorohydrin process and 40% of the co-oxidation process; in terms of the yield of propylene oxide, the yield of HPPO technology is more than 95%, while the chlorohydrin process and co-oxygen process are 88% and 91% 93% respectively. 

In terms of water, electricity, steam and other utility consumption, HPPO technology is 35% 40% lower than chlorohydrin method and co-oxidation method; the number of workers used in public works is 50 people for HPPO technology, 81 people for chlorohydrin method and 70 people for co-oxygenation method; in terms of unit production cost of propylene oxide, HPPO technology is 86% and 81.9% of that of chlorohydrin method and co-oxidation method respectively. 

The HPPO process was first developed by the Italian company Enichem in the early 1980s. It reacts propylene with hydrogen peroxide in methanol to produce propylene oxide and water in the presence of titanium silicalite (TS-1) catalyst. 

This method has the advantages of high raw material utilization, green environmental protection and low investment cost, which represents the development direction of PO production. 

At present, the core technology of HPPO process is mainly in the hands of a few international chemical giants, such as BASF, Dow Chemical, Yingchuang, Wood and so on. 

With the advantage of monopoly, international giants charge a very high price for technology transfer. 

According to insiders of a large petrochemical enterprise, the technology transfer fee for the preparation of propylene oxide alone costs tens of millions of euros. 

Not only that, hydrogen peroxide manufacturing technology has to be bundled and priced separately. 

The research and development of this process in China started relatively late, and it was not until 2014 that Sinopec Changling Branch built the first domestic 100000 t HPPO device with completely independent research and development and completely independent intellectual property rights, thus breaking through the foreign monopoly on this technology. 

China's per capita GDP is expected to exceed 85000 yuan in 2025, officially entering the ranks of high-income countries, and the development model will also transform from high growth to high quality. 

High-quality development is an omni-directional change, which is the development of economic and social development mode from speed to quality and benefit, which involves the improvement of quality and efficiency and the optimization of structure in various fields and industries. Green sustainable development is the top priority. 

In China, with the release of the "double carbon" goal and the landing of relevant energy conservation and emission reduction policies, green environmental protection has gradually become an important topic in the development of enterprises, and the environmental performance of enterprises has also been pushed to a prominent position. 

With the increasing efforts of environmental protection, the chlorohydrin process will gradually withdraw from the historical stage, and the supply gap will be replaced by the greener process HPPO process. It is estimated that the propylene oxide of China's HPPO process will increase by nearly 2 million tons in the next few years. 

Mainly from Huayi 300000 tons / year HPPO in Qinzhou, Guangxi, 150000 tons / year HPPO in Sanyue Chemical, 300000 tons / year HPPO in Weiyuan, 300000 tons / year HPPO in Quanzhou, 300000 tons / year HPPO in Qi Xiangteng, 150000 tons / year HPPO plant in Dongminxiang Chemical Industry, and 2 sets of 400000 tons / year HPPO devices in satellite chemistry. 

Among them, the most large-scale advantage is satellite chemistry. 

On December 28, 2021, Jiangsu Jiahong New Materials Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Satellite Chemistry, made a public announcement of the second EIA in Xuwei New District, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province. 

The total investment of the project is 11.38 billion, including 6 sets of 450000 t / a peroxide plant and 2 sets of 400000 t / a propylene oxide plant. 

The propylene oxide plant mainly adopts the hydrogen peroxide direct oxidation process of medium Catalyst New Materials Co., Ltd. 

After the largest cracking capacity of acrylic acid and ethane in China, with the launch of HPPO capacity, satellite chemistry will also have the largest green PO capacity in China.