Methanol-to-Propylene Technology

By Intratec Solutions
Olefins is a long chain synthetic fiber, it is created when ethylene
and/or propylene gases are polymerized under very specific conditions.
Olefins has many kind of purposes for our daily needs such as in
automotive
applications,
household
goods,
electrical/electronic
applications, packaging, industrial applications, and etc. The availability
of propylene and ethylene are so menentukan for the feasibillity of world
olefins business. However the availability of propylene is decreasing now
because the inexpensive natural gas from shel as its raw material mostly
use for ethylene production in U.S. Look at diagrams below.
First diagram shows that the
most application of propylene is in
polypropylene form as olefins
business needs. And from the next
diagram we can conclude that the
world demand for
propylene
always increases in recently years.
Thus, there is a problem
between
the
decreasing
availability of propylene and the
increasing of its demand in the
world.
Because of this condition, its
important to find the new chemical
processes
using
cheap
raw
materials for producing propylene.
One of the new processes is
methanol-topropylene
(MTP)
technology
licensed
by
Lurgi
GmbH. This technology used
methanol
as
the
low
cost
feedstock.
The
methanol
is
produced from synthesis gas which
can be obtained from natural gas or coal.
There are two main reactions in MTP technology such as
dehydrating methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) on an aluminum oxide
catalyst and transforming DME and methanol into variety olefins ranging
Yulia Dwi Rahmawati 135061100111002 Chemical Engineering 2013

from ethylene to octenes. This technology uses zeolite-based catalyst

(ZSM-5) in order to produce larger number of propylene.
The process occured in MTP technology may similar to DTP technology
( Dominant Technology for the Propylene Production licensed by JGC
Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) which is divided into
three main parts :
1. Reaction and regeneration
In this step initially occurs dehydration process of methanol, then
the dehidrated methanol mixed with recycled hydrocarbons and
steam before enter into MTP reactors. It used multiple reactors
which were designed to maximize the production of propylene.
2. Quench and compression.
In this step, the output from MTP reactors is quenched, most of the
water is removed to methanol-recovery column, while the remaining
water is vaporized which is used as dilution steam in the MTP
reactors. After that, the vapor stream is compressed and partially
condensed, then separated into liquid and vapor streams.
3. Product fractionation
Its the last step, the liquid streams and vapor streams obtained in
the previous steps is processed in different way.
The liquid streams sent to the debutanizer, to separate the four
carbons C4 hydocarbon or less than it and DME from those with the
greater than five carbons(C5+) components. Then, the C5+
components stream from the column bottom is separated in
dehexanizer. The result of this separation are the recycled stream go
to the MTP reactors and gasoline.
The vapor streams is mixed with the debutanizer overhead stream
and flowed to the DME removal systems. This system obtained
mainly propylene product on the top of it. Then, the product on the
top of the system is sent to de-ethanizer, while the product on the
bottom is recycled and flowed to propylene-propane splitter. In this
system obtained polymer-grade (PG) propylene and liquid petroleum
gas (LPG).
The following table is the data about MTP technology :

Yulia Dwi Rahmawati 135061100111002 Chemical Engineering 2013

N
o.
1.
2.
3.

MTP technology
Company
Catalyst
Process Description
Reactor system
Regeneration
Recycle
Conversion (%)
Operating Conditions
Temperature (deg.
C)
Pressure (bar)
Olefin Yields (% wt)
Ethylene
Propylene

4.
5.

6.

Lurgi
Modified ZSM-5
Fixed Bed
Batch Mode
Olefin and Water
>99
425
1.5
65

There

was
evaluation on economic performance of this technology based on data
from the last quarter of 2012. There were assumptions of it such as:
1. The MTP plant in U.S Gulf Coast has been established with 560,000
ton/year.
2. The storage of the raw material and the product didnt exist.
3. Outside battery limits unit
To establish the MTP plant in U.S Gulf Coast , the investment cost is
about $370 million. In China, there is similar plant which need investment
only $295 million.
There are two countries which is promising to establish this plant in the
future, that are China and U.S. Why? Because, China has a huge number
of coal which can be extracted to be methanol gas as MTP feedstock over
1 million ton/year methanol. From this reasons its possible to build many
MTP plants in this country.
U.S also could be promising region for building this plant because the
increasing availability of shel guarantees which can be extracted to be
natural gas. Thus, the methanol will also can be sythesized as MTP
feedstock.

References :
Anonymous. . Polypropylene (PP) Plastics. Retrieved January 3, 2014
from http://plastics.ides.com/generics/39/polypropylene-pp

Yulia Dwi Rahmawati 135061100111002 Chemical Engineering 2013

Chikamatsu, N., Honda, K., Okita, A., Takahashi, J., Oyama, K., Nakamura,
A. 2011. Dominant Technology for the Propylene Production (DTP )
Process.
Retrieved
January
1,
2014,
from
http://aboutdme.org/aboutdme/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/00000000197
3/7AsianDME_JGC_Chikamatsu.pdf
Intratec Solution. 2013. Methanol-to-Propylene Technology. Chemical
Engineering August 2013
Wallace, O. 2013. What is Olefin?. Retrieved January 3, 2014 from
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-olefin.htm

Yulia Dwi Rahmawati 135061100111002 Chemical Engineering 2013