Honeywell UOP to power Europe’s largest propylene production unit

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has announced that its C₃ Oleflex™ process technology will be used by Poland’s Grupa Azoty to produce propylene. The propylene will be used to make resins and plastics that replace metal automobile parts. This will decrease automobile weight and improve fuel efficiency.

Grupa Azoty, located in Poland, is one of Europe’s largest chemical companies. It offers a diversified product portfolio, ranging from mineral fertilisers and engineering plastics to oxo-alcohols and pigments. The new facility in Grupa Azoty will produce 400 000 tpy of high-quality propylene, enough to support the production of nearly 11 million cars per year.

Honeywell UOP Oleflex technology

“This new propylene production unit will be the largest project in our company’s history and it will make a significant impact on the European petrochemical market, so it was important to select a reliable technology and an experienced company,” said Krzysztof Jalosinski, President of Grupa Azoty’s subsidiary in Police and Vice-President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty. “We chose Honeywell UOP Oleflex technology due to its economics, reliability and product quality, as well as the company’s decades of experience with propylene projects worldwide.”

Propylene shortage

Propylene is a byproduct of certain refining processes. Many of these refining process units in Europe are closing or being converted to other processes which produce less propylene byproduct. The resulting propylene shortage has sparked investment in technology to create on-purpose propylene from propane, which is either derived from natural gas or produced from petroleum refining.

By 2020, 20% of the world’s propylene production is expected to come from on-purpose propylene production technologies, such as Honeywell UOP’s Oleflex technology. For more than 20 years, Oleflex has been a leading technology worldwide for converting propane to propylene.

“In Western Europe, byproduct propylene is expected to decline about 4% over the next five years, while global propylene demand will increase by more than 20%, meaning on-purpose production is critical to fill the gap,” said Mike Millard, Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell UOP’s Process Technology and Equipment business. “This new facility helps position Poland as an important petrochemical producer with strong manufacturing capabilities that is creating new jobs in the region.”

Since the Oleflex process was developed, Honeywell UOP has continually improved the technology and the catalyst it uses. Compared with competing dehydrogenation processes, Oleflex technology provides the lowest cash cost of production, the highest return on investment and the smallest environmental footprint. The technology is characterised by low capital cost, high propylene yields, low energy consumption, and use of a fully recyclable platinum alumina-based catalyst system.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/17062015/honeywell-uop-to-power-europe%E2%80%99s-largest-propylene-production-unit/