Johnson Matthey plc (JM; London) and Dow (Midland, Mich.) announced that Anqing Shuguang Petrochemical Oxo Co., Ltd. (Anqing), has licensed LP Oxo Technology to produce approximately 200,000 ton/yr of 2-ethylhexanol and 25,000 ton/yr iso-butyraldehdye.
This license, the second LP Oxo license for Anqing and the 23rd license of LP Oxo Technology served in China, will support expanding Anqing’s oxo business in the growing oxo alcohols’ market. The plant is expected to come online in 2024. Anqing first started operating LP Oxo Technology in 2016 to produce 100,000 ton/yr of 2-ethylhexanol, 115,000 ton/yr of normal butanol and 23,000 ton/yr of isobutanol.
Hector Miravete, Global Commercial Director – Catalyst Technologies at Johnson Matthey says: “This is a significant endorsement of our technology. The new design includes improvements we have made to ensure LP Oxo Technology remains world leading. We have started the process design and look forward to working closely with Anqing as they construct the plant.”
“This second license for the use of LP Oxo Technology with Anqing reinforces the value of this proven technology and its broad intellectual property portfolio,” said Lauren James, global business director, Dow Industrial Solutions. “Further, this project provides the opportunity for quick expansion in the China oxo alcohols market with new innovations to complement a technology with which Anqing has extensive operating experience. As an official licensee, Anqing will have access to new innovations to complement the first plant and access to JM and Dow expertise in support of this new second plant.”
2-ethylhexanol is used for plasticizing PVC, making speciality adhesives and paints. Iso-buyraldehyde is used for specialty coatings and solvent applications.
LP Oxo Technology is a low-pressure hydroformylation process that is most commonly used with propylene and synthesis gas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to produce normal- and isobutyraldehydes. These butyraldehydes are then converted into 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH), normal-, and isobutanol used primarily in plasticiser applications, paint manufacture, and speciality coatings and solvents, respectively. Additional applications of LP Oxo Technology include a process for producing isononyl alcohol and 2-propyl heptanol, both growing plasticizer alcohol alternatives to 2-EH, from mixed butene streams and a process for producing C12 to C15 surfactant range alcohols from C11 to C14 Fischer-Tropsch olefins. The technology is also applied as a component of a process plant for converting heptene-1 that has been extracted from Fischer-Tropsch products to co-monomer grade octene-1.