Propylene has established itself as a major member of the global olefins business, second only to ethylene. Globally, the greatest volume of propylene is generated as a by-product in steam crackers and through the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process.

With ethane prices falling in the USA due to the exploration of shale gas reserves, the low price of ethylene produced from this raw material has given ethane-fed steam crackers in North America a feedstock advantage. Such a change has put naphtha-fed steam crackers at a disadvantage, with many of them shutting down or revamping to use ethane as feedstock. Nevertheless, the propylene output rates from ethane-fed crackers are negligible. This, along with the rise in propylene demand, has resulted in a tight propylene market.

For this reason, new and novel lower-cost chemical processes for on-purpose propylene production technologies are of high interest to the petrochemical marketplace. Such processes include: Metathesis, Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH), Methanol-to-Olefins/Methanol-to-Propylene (MTO/MTP), High Severity FCC, and Olefins Cracking. Among those, MTO/MTP and PDH stand out due to the use of low-cost raw materials. In the US, major companies are building PDH plants to take advantage of shale gas, the fastest growing source of gas in the country. In Middle East, the propane output is expected to be capable of supplying not only domestic needs, but also the demand from China, where many PDH projects are scheduled to go on stream within the next few years.

In this study, the production of propylene through the dehydrogenation of propane is reviewed. Included in the analysis is an overview of the technology and economics of a method similar to the Lummus CATOFIN® process. Both the capital investment and the operating costs are presented for a plant constructed on the US Gulf Coast and in China. Process consumptions were validated through a comparison with publicly available information.

The economic analysis presented in this report is based on a plant fully integrated with a petrochemical complex and capable of producing 590 kta of polymer grade propylene. The estimated CAPEX for such a plant on the US Gulf Coast is about USD 490 million. While China presented the lowest CAPEX, the USA presented the most advantageous operational margins, due to the rise of shale gas and reduction in propane prices. Although China still depends on imported propane from Middle East, being subjected to shortages of supply, the historical operational margins are high enough to explain the number of PDH planned projects in the country. The attractiveness of propane dehydrogenation is proven by the calculated internal rate of return above 30% in the United States.

ISBN-13: 978-1-483-95112-6