Clariant Launches Highly Styrene Catalysts

November 8, specialty chemicals manufacturer Clariant announced the launch of a new high-performance ethylbenzene dehydrogenation catalyst. With its proprietary design, the catalyst achieves excellent activity and selectivity at ultra-low water to oil ratios (ie, water vapor / hydrocarbon ratio SHR) conditions. Thus, in the production of styrene monomers, the catalyst is more efficient than other advanced catalysts.

The new catalyst solves the important problem in the production of styrene monomer. Ethylbenzene produces hot styrene as energy for the production of styrene monomer, relying on the catalyst to promote dehydrogenation. Due to the high energy consumption required to produce steam, the latest factory process design needs to rely on ultra-low SHR conditions to save costs. However, prior to the performance of the styrene catalyst in such a low SHR conditions, its activity and selectivity can not be achieved.

In May 2016, the Taiwan-based Qiao Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (GPPC) styrene production plant using this new catalyst, compared with the previous operation, has been able to achieve the lower temperature of styrene design productivity The Moreover, the current catalyst selectivity is also increased by 0.5% compared to the previous catalyst