Oxygen Addition for Partial

Oxidation Reactions

Petrotemex
July 21, 2005

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Praxair Commercial Oxygen Addition
Experience
 Air Enrichment
 PTA
 Phenol
 Acrylonitrile
 Maleic anhydride
 Phthalic anhydride
 Direct Injection
 Nitric acid
 Caprolactam
 Acrylonitrile
 Maleic anhydride

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Approaches to Oxygen Addition
 Praxair offers two
technologies for PTA
 Air Enrichment (AE) – Vent
commercially practiced for
PTA
 Direct Oxygen Injection
(DOI) – in development for
PTA Feed Product

Air Oxygen – Direct

Injection
Compressor Reactor

Oxygen – Air Enrichment

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Air Enrichment - Methodology
 Typical AE Process
Vent
 Increase O2 concentration
in air feed up to 30%
 Typically to ~25% oxygen
 Increase feed flow
 Maintain constant oxygen
concentration in headspace
Feed Product
 AE Installation
 Easy retrofit
Air
 Oxygen source
 Oxygen flow control skid Compressor Reactor
 Air line tee
 Oxygen injector Oxygen

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Air Enrichment - Benefits

 Production Increase
 Capacity increases of 13-25% can be achieved
when the air is enriched to 25% oxygen
 Capacity increase will depend on the particular
customer’s bottleneck

 Byproduct Reduction – In Development

 Further process optimization (lower temperature
operation) may result in less acetic acid loss and
less impurity formation

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Direct Injection - Methodology
 Technology is in development for PTA
 Process
 Oxygen injected directly into the reactor into oxygen-starved zones
 Increase or maintain feed flow
 Maintain constant oxygen concentration in headspace
 Installation
 Requires adding oxygen injector into the reactor
 Special skid and sparger to prevent hydrocarbon backflow

Vent

Feed Product

Air Oxygen – Direct Injection

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL Compressor Reactor
 Direct Injection - Benefits

 Production Increase
 Increased capacity of up to 32% can be possible

 Byproduct Reduction
 Oxygen supplied to oxygen deficient regions of the reactor
 Decrease reactions associated with oxygen starvation

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Commercial Demonstration - Air
Enrichment
 Demonstrated at a U.S. TPA Plant
 Enrichment used to gain a production
increase (capital deferment)
 Safety Review
Modeling was done to predict the effect of
enrichment of oxygen concentration in the vent
stream
 Materials Compatibility
Praxair’s Materials Engineering Labs conducted a
full analysis

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Commercial Demonstration - Air
Enrichment
 Successfully Increased Production
Capacity with Oxygen Enrichment
 Enrichment to 25% Oxygen
 Increased Capacity by 17%
 No increase in impurities
 Product quality increased slightly with
enriched air

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Oxygen Enrichment – Customer
Benefits
Production Increase Achieved 13% 17% 25%

Nameplate Capacity 600 600 600 kmtpa

Oxygen (as % gas feed) 25% 25% 25%
Production Increase 13% 17% 25%
Actual Capacity 678 702 750 kmtpa
Additional Capacity 78 102 150 kmtpa
Additional Product Sales $76,747 $100,361 $147,590 (1000s)

Supplemental Oxygen Required 82.7 85.6 91.5 kmtpa

Annual Cost Oxygen $4,559 $4,720 $5,043 (1000s)
Cost of Additional p-xylene $53,241 $69,623 $102,386 (1000s)
Cost of Additional Acetic Acid $3,493 $4,567 $6,716 (1000s)
Additional Cost $61,292 $78,910 $114,146 (1000s)

Net Profit $15.5 mm/year $21.5 mm/year $33.4 mm/year

Assumptions:
PTA Sales Price - $984/tonne
p-xylene cost - $1004/tonne
Acetic Acid cost -$772/tonne
Oxygen Cost - $55/tonne
Oxygen cost varies depending on local conditions, including power cost

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Summary
 Capacity increases of 13-15% can be
achieved with Air Enrichment
 Air Enrichment requires no reactor
modifications and low capital investment
 Praxair’s engineering design includes a
safety analysis of the oxygen skid and
oxygen injectors

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL
 Next Steps?

BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL