Polymer producer BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (Essen / Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) have signed a joint development agreement on a partnership on “steam active reforming” (Star) process dehydrogenation technology. Star is a process developed by Uhde (the former ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions – see Plasteurope.com of 18.01.2007) that produces propylene through propane dehydrogenation (PDH), or isobutene from isobutane, using a stable catalyst.

Under the partnership, ThyssenKrupp will focus on process development, while BASF will concentrate on catalyst development. The goal is to cut the consumption of energy and resources of the process, helping to lower plant investment and operating costs as well as CO₂ emissions in the future. The collaboration will address topics like cutting precious metal content, which reduces both catalyst costs and consumption of feedstock and energy.

A BASF spokesperson told Plasteurope.com that a test facility is planned at the company’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen. The plant is expected to start up in 2022, with the aim for capacity to be in the range of 300,000 t/y to 1m t/y in 2025. According to BASF, the saving on energy consumption with the Star process can reduce propylene production costs by up to 8%.

Three facilities using the Star process are in operation – for around 350,000 t/y of propylene run by Egyptian Propylene and Polypropylene’s (EPP, Port Said / Egypt – see Plasteurope.com of 08.05.2020) as well as 100,000 t/y of isobutene at Coastal Chemicals (USA) and 40,000 t/y of isobutene at Polybutenos (Argentina). Star technology for propylene production has also been licensed to Mehr Petro Kimia (Mepec, Iran – 450,000 t/y), Salman Farsi Petrochemical (SFPC, Iran – 450,000 t/y) and Formosa Plastics (USA – 545,000 t/y).

According to BASF, propylene is one of the largest volume chemicals produced globally, with further growth projected. PIE’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net) shows that more than 3.6m t/y of new C3 capacity is being planned in the next five years in Europe. Current European propylene production capacity is around 19m t/y, with the top three countries being Germany (23% share), the Netherlands (13%) and Belgium (12%).