Catalytic Dehydrogenation Future of Propylene Production

• Raghad Albadri
• Christian Kozlowski
• Aref Wahdan
• Ekaterina Ivanov

Propylene is the second-largest-volume chemical produced worldwide, and demand is projected to grow by 5.7% by 2023. Two-thirds of the propylene supply produced is to synthesize polypropylene. Polypropylene is used in many different industries due to its unique combination of chemical and mechanical properties. Packaging, textiles, plastics and technical parts, and other are all examples of consumer products derived from propylene raw material.There is a growing shortage of propylene because of cracking units switching from naphtha feedstock to lower-cost ethane feedstock, which has causes the C2=/C3= yield from cracking units to shift more to ethylene and misaligned with market demand. This reduction in propylene yield has resulted in a greater importance on-purpose propylene production technology to meet the increasing global demand for propylene. Our project is to evaluate propane dehydrogenation technologies to meet this technology need; identify a technology with lower energy and feedstock consumption, low capital cost, high return on investment, and high propylene yield; and design a propylene-producing process based on this technology. We selected the UOP Oleflex Process to catalytically dehydrogenate propane to propylene using with continuous regeneration of the catalyst and present.