Honeywell engineer elected to engineering academy

Vora retired from Honeywell UOP in 2006, and remained an advisor to the business until 2015. During his 40-year career at the company, Vora led the development and commercialisation of several technologies that improved process economics, lowered energy requirements and benefitted the environment.

Vora’s election to the Academy recognises his development of catalytic process innovations that led to the commercialisation of numerous breakthrough petrochemicals technologies. These include the development of processes to make linear alkylbenzene (LAB) for a new generation of biodegradable detergents, and the Oleflex^TM propane dehydrogenation process, which efficiently converts propane into propylene and isobutane into isobutylene. He also led the development of UOP’s Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process, which converts methanol from coal and natural gas into the olefins used to make plastics.

UOP’s Oleflex technology is a preferred method of converting C3 and C4 paraffins into olefins. Since the technology was first commercialised in 1990, Honeywell UOP has commissioned 27 Oleflex units for on-purpose propylene and isobutylene production. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology now stands at nearly 7 million tpy.

The MTO process converts methanol from coal and natural gas into ethylene and propylene, components of plastics that traditionally have been derived from crude oil. For regions such as China that lack domestic crude oil, MTO technology allows for the use of other more economical feedstocks such as coal and natural gas.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/special-reports/09032018/honeywell-engineer-elected-to-engineering-academy/