Davy licences butanol plant to Formosa Plastics

Davy Process Technology has licensed Formosa Plastics a plant for producing 250,000 metric tons per year of normal butanol for use at the Formosa Plastics Mailiao complex in Taiwan

Davy Process Technology, in cooperation with Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, has licensed Formosa Plastics Corporation (FPC) with a plant for producing 250,000 metric tons per year of normal butanol that FPC will build at the Formosa Plastics Mailiao complex in Taiwan.

The plant is scheduled to go into operation during 2008, DPT having already completed the basic engineering design at its London office.

The plant will use LP OxoSMSelectorSM30 technology using NormaxTMCatalyst to conduct the low pressure hydroformylation of propylene using synthesis gas to produce normal and iso-butyraldehydes, before conversion of the normal product to normal butanol.

The Selector 30 technology is one of several LP Oxo offerings available from DPT and UCC, and was chosen by FPC as it provides the highest commercial isomer selectivity favouring the normal product that is available today and therefore the most cost efficient route to normal butanol.

FPC will source the propylene feedstock from Formosa Petrochemical Corporation.

The normal butanol willbe used by FPC in a new acrylic esters plant it is building at Mailiao.

FPC is also building further crude acrylic acid capacity at Mailiao.

The FPC plant will be the 31st project DPT and UCC have licensed for their LP Oxo technology.

More than 60% of the global production of butyraldehydes comes from plants using LP Oxo.

Most of these plants employ Selector 10 technology, giving around three times the co-production of iso-butyraldehyde than FPC has opted for.

By being in a position to vary the isomer selectivity, DPT and UCC are able to tailor the design of the Oxo system to suit customer preferences as market dynamics shift.

Davy Process Technology has a global business in petrochemicals technology development and technology licensing.

The company has headquarters in London, and its Technology Centre is based in Stockton-on-Tees.

It owns a range of proprietary process technologies such as methanol, gas conversion technologies, butanediol, natural detergent alcohols, oxo alcohols, industrial amines, ethyl acetate and fertilisers.

Davy Process Technology is a Johnson Matthey company.

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