Propylene oxide - The clean Evonik-Uhde HPPO technology

Overview

On the basis of an exclusive partnership, Evonik and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions have jointly developed an innovative co-product-free and environmentally-friendly process for the production of propylene oxide (PO) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) with the aid of a special catalyst.

The process incorporates years of experience gained in all relevant process steps through the operation of a pilot plant. The pilot plant demonstrated under practical conditions the absence of co-products as well as the environmental compatibility and high product yield of the process, thus paving the way for development to market maturity.

The Evonik-Uhde HPPO technology has been in successful commercial operation at the world’s first plant to be based on this process since 2008. The plant is owned by SKC of Korea. In 2011 Evonik and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions were awarded two further contracts: Expansion of the aforementioned SKC plant and a contract to build a 300,000 tons-per-year plant in Jilin, China.

Operation of the Evonik-Uhde HPPO process is extremely cost-effective due to efficient feedstock consumption, a high-performance catalyst and low capital investment. The epoxidation reactor is specially designed for the exothermic reaction and combines efficient heat transfer with an almost ideal plug-flow characteristic. Compared to other state-of-the-art PO technologies, the Evonik-Uhde HPPO process also entails lower capital investment, thus allowing the investor to be more flexible in his investment decisions.

A further advantage: thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions can also provide plants for the production of propylene feed via the oxydehydrogenation of propane by means of its proprietary STAR process technology.