UOP, together with our alliance partners, offers world-class technologies to produce these benzene derivatives, focusing on high efficiency and low energy consumption for minimum investment cost.
Ethylbenzene (EB) is a precursor of styrene monomer (SM), which is the basic building block for the production of the polystyrene and other styrenic resins used in consumer goods.
The Lummus/UOP EBOne™ process is a liquid-phase alkylation process that uses a proprietary, zeolite-based catalyst system developed and manufactured by UOP to produce ethylbenzene. New developments in our aromatics catalysts can translate to exceptional run lengths of three to five years, eliminating the need for frequent regenerations or reloads and also significantly reduce utility requirements.
To utilize EB as a feedstock for SM production, UOP offers the Lummus/UOP Classic SM process. The process is a deep-vacuum, dehydrogenation technology cited for its efficient heat integration and exceptional mechanical integrity. The unique dehydrogenation reactor system is designed to operate at a cost-effective, minimal operating pressure and to achieve the highest SM selectivity at high conversion rates. The end result is high purity SM, lower feed consumption, lower operating costs and high product yields.
To eliminate costly interstage reheating and reduce expensive superheated steam requirements, you can employ the Lummus/UOP Smart SM™ process. The process enables 30 to 50 percent capacity expansions at 25 percent lower capital cost than a conventional revamp. It uses specially designed reactors to complete the oxidation and dehydrogenation reactions, where oxidation is accomplished using UOP’s OC series of highly selective catalysts. For existing SM producers, revamping to the Smart SM process is typically the most cost-effective route to increased capacity.
Contact us for more information
Cumene is the primary building block for making phenol and its derivatives. UOP delivers the latest generation of cumene technology based on highly-selective, stable and regenerable zeolite catalysts. These catalysts minimize unit turnarounds and help you avoid disposal problems associated with older solid phosphoric acid and aluminum chloride catalysts.
The UOP Q-Max™ process is flexible and can be designed to process refinery, chemical or polymer-grade propylene. It employs our proprietary QZ series of regenerable catalysts to produce high-quality cumene while operating at low benzene-to-propylene ratios. The latest generation alkylation catalyst, QZ-2500H, was commercialized in 2013. It reduces byproduct transalkylation catalyst requirements, lowers utility consumption and minimizes the capital expense for downstream fractionation equipment.
A majority of cumene units are integrated with a downstream phenol unit. Combining the Q-Max process with the UOP Phenol™ process results in higher phenol yields, improved product quality and lower utility consumption.
UOP Q-Max technology is currently licensed in 22 units worldwide, with a total cumene capacity greater than 6 million MTA.
Contact us for more information.
Phenol is primarily converted to plastics or other related materials. Condensation of phenol with acetone produces bisphenol-A, a key building block for polycarbonate plastics. Condensation with formaldehyde produces phenolic resins, which are used to make durable laminated boards and industrial adhesives. Hydrogenation of phenol makes cyclohexanone, a nylon intermediate.
The UOP Phenol process produces the highest quality phenol and co-product acetone at the lowest feedstock and utility requirements and the lowest capital investment. Low-pressure, low-temperature cumene oxidation offers high yield and improved safety, as well as high product selectivity, resulting in a very low cumene feed consumption. The quality of the phenol and acetone products meets the most stringent feed specifications required for bisphenol-A/polycarbonate (phenol) and food/pharmaceutical (acetone) applications.
Integrating the UOP Phenol process with the UOP Q-Max™ process often results in additional utility cost reduction.
UOP phenol technology is currently licensed to 22 units worldwide, with a total phenol capacity greater than 3.4 million MTA.
Contact us for more information.
The UOP Sinco Solid State Polycondensation (SSP) process provides the final step in your polyester value chain for the production of bottle-grade PET resin.
UOP’s modular SSP process units are designed for trouble-free operation with simple, infrequent maintenance to help keep operational costs low and profits up. Along with operational robustness, we back the quality of the product resin chips with our performance guarantee.
The entire process is performed in an inert nitrogen atmosphere to ensure production of the highest quality chips with only carbon dioxide and water as waste. Temperatures are closely controlled to achieve desired product properties.
UOP Sinco is an industry leader in PET SSP technology with our units producing over 7.5 million metric tons of resin each year. Let UOP provide you a true turn-key solution for your PET solid-stating needs.
Contact us for more information on Sinco process technologies
