SRI Identifies Zeolite Catalysts as Lowest-Cost Route to Cumene
Overall yield dominates cumene production economics. According to the report, zeolite catalysts come out ahead because of high benzene- to-cumene selectivity and improved product purity. Producers are also able to regenerate zeolites, eliminating the cost of spent catalyst disposal.
Aluminum chloride-based processes require additional equipment for catalyst separation and more expensive materials of construction. This gives them the highest total capital costs. Zeolite and modern SPA plants costs about the same. According to SRI, the difference between the two is less than 5%.
Virtually all commercial plants make cumene by alkylating benzene with propylene over an acid catalyst. UOP's SPA-based process dominated the field from the 1940s through the early 1990s. Aluminum chloride has held a niche in this market for many years.
Georgia Gulf opened the world's first completely zeolite-based cumene plant in 1996. It uses Mobil-Badger technology. UOP and CDTech also license zeolite-based processes.
Cumene have begun licensing the technology to retrofit existing SPA plants. According to SRI, they have shown significant gains in production capacity and product purity. Producers have also announced a number of new grassroots plants that will use zeolite technology.
Cumene (PEP Report 219) includes detailed process economics information, worldwide capacity and technology data, and projected growth rates. It also examines alternatives to the use of new technologies to retrofit existing cumene plants.
For more information: Marcos Cesar, SRI Consulting, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025-3493. Phone: 650-859- 5212. Fax: 650-859-4325. Email: mcesar@sric.sri.com.
Edited by Alan S. Brown