LINDE and BASF have agreed to work together on new processes able to combat shrinking butadiene yields, as the global chemicals industry looks to adjust to new, lighter feedstocks.
The German partners say they are developing a new process that looks to produce butadiene from butane to butadiene via butenes. Unlike current processes it will look to create the monomer – used for the production of polymers, paper coating and synthetic rubber – on purpose, rather than as a co-product from cracking naphtha to ethylene.
The need for a new process can be traced back to the North American shale boom, which has helped revolutionise the US petrochemicals industry. Not only has this supplied cheap energy, but also huge amounts of cheap feedstock in the form of natural gas liquids (NGLs).
However, while this feedstock is cheap, it is also comparatively light, cutting down on the amount of higher olefins being created as co-products. Since the shale boom took form around ten years ago, yields of butadiene from US crackers has dropped 30%, driving up global demand.
BASF has developed the process technology and catalysts as well as the extraction technologies, while Linde is providing its expertise for the integration, optimisation and commercialisation of the process.
Heinrich-Josef Blankertz, senior vice president of technology of BASF’s petrochemicals division, says that the equipment needed for the process “is currently being developed by mini plant and pilot plant operation” at the company’s vast Ludwigshafen site in Germany.