Evonik Industries (Essen / Germany; www.evonik.com) on 31 August announced the official start-up of its new C4-based production plants in Marl / Germany. The lines are part of a three-digit million euro investment in the group’s C4 capacities throughout Europe, as part of which the group also brought new capacities on stream in Antwerp / Belgium in Q2 this year (see Plasteurope.com of 06.07.2015). The money has raised output of plasticiser alcohol isononanol in Marl, butadiene production in Antwerp and also lifted production of fuel additive MTBE at both sites, Evonik said.

As part of the investment, Evonik equipped the site in Marl with a new technology – the first of its kind in the world – that uses special material streams from BP’s nearby refinery in Gelsenkirchen to produce C4 chemicals. The approach uses fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) to produce C4 material streams that can be used as feedstock for olefins but also contain other accompanying substances. The innovative technology is applied in a new 90-metre column at Marl, where Evonik removes saturated compounds (butanes) from the FCC-C4 material stream, so that the unsaturated C4 compounds (butenes) can be further processed to speciality chemicals.

While Evonik is not interested in the residual butanes, these are an important raw material for the Scholven refinery, and the group thus returns them by pipeline to Gelsenkirchen, where they are used as a feedstock for olefins production. The process is “a good example for a cross-company cooperation that strengthens competitiveness,” said BP Europa executive board member Frédéric Baudry. Evonik Performance Materials board chairman Johann-Caspar Gammelin added that the technology “gives us access to raw-material streams that have so far not been used for downstream chemical processing.” He added that the capacity expansion supports the growth plans of Evonik’s European customers, pointing out that market analyses predict that demand for C4-based products is growing by up to 5% per year.