China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of ethylene oxide/glycol! Interview with Shell ethylene oxide experts

Since entering the 21st century, China has gradually become the world's largest consumer of ethylene oxide / ethylene glycol, domestic ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol production has increased significantly, ethylene glycol imports have also been growing; in the past decade, with the completion and operation of a number of large domestic plants, China has become the world's largest producer of ethylene oxide / ethylene glycol, China's ethylene oxide / glycol industry has made great progress.

Shell ethylene oxide catalysts and process technologies

In this development process, Shell's ethylene oxide/glycol technology has played a pivotal role in driving and advancing the market. Today we are honored to invite Mr. Chen Jun, an expert in ethylene oxide catalyst technology from Shell, to share with us the development history of Shell's ethylene oxide technology and how it has become an industry leader.

Chen Jun: Okay. The application of Shell ethylene oxide/glycol technology in China can be traced back to the early 1980s, when Shell ethylene oxide catalysts were applied in the ethylene oxide plant of Liaoyang Chemical Fiber Factory. With the successful commissioning of the first domestic ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant in Fushun Ethylene Plant in the early 1990s, the reliability, safety, ease of operation and the excellent performance of the catalyst have been quickly recognized by the domestic market. At the beginning of this century, two sets of domestic plants using Shell's highly selective catalyst S-882 were put into operation, which also brought China's ethylene oxide/glycol production into the era of highly selective catalysts.

Editor: At present, Shell's ethylene oxide process and catalyst occupy the highest share of the Chinese market (in terms of production capacity and loading dose). Looking at the development of ethylene oxide/glycol technology around the world, it can almost be said that without Shell's continuous investment in technology research and development and product innovation, there would be no ethylene oxide/glycol industry today. Can you tell us more about this development process?

Chen Jun: In 1933, Shell scientists discovered that silver can catalyze ethylene epoxidation to produce ethylene oxide, thereby changing the production route of ethylene glycol, from the chlorool method to the oxidation method, and then Shell first adopted the oxygen method to replace the air method, the first to use methane to replace nitrogen as a stabilizer, the first to use water-cooled reactors instead of oil-cooled reactors, the first to develop a highly selective catalyst, the catalyst selectivity from 70 to 80% to 85 to 92% level, the first to develop a catalytic hydration process. The generation of by-products is greatly reduced, energy consumption and fixed asset investment are reduced. It can be said that each of the above major technological advances has brought about a revolution in the ethylene oxide/glycol industry. Today, Shell has formed a comprehensive ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol technology that includes four series of ethylene oxide catalysts and three representative process routes, maintaining a comprehensive leading position in ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol catalysts and process technologies.

Editor: So what are the current product lines of Shell ethylene oxide catalysts? Can you elaborate on their respective characteristics?

Jun Chen: Shell's current four ethylene oxide catalyst series include the High Selectivity Series, the Selective Series, the High Performance Series and the High Tolerance Series. The high selectivity series is represented by S-889 and S-892, which is characterized by low silver content, high initial selectivity, slow performance decay under low spatio-temporal yield and low CO2 concentration operating conditions, and is the best catalyst choice for reducing ethylene unit consumption and reducing carbon dioxide emissions under moderate conditions. The initial selectivity of the selective catalyst is represented by S-891B, the initial selectivity reaches more than 89%, can withstand high spatio-temporal yield and high CO2 concentration, the temperature and selectivity in the second half of the cycle are very stable, the current global traditional high-activity catalyst based design of the old device, in the case of CO2 system without a large transformation, are using shell production of selective catalyst. The high-performance catalyst series is represented by S-895 and S-896, which has slow performance attenuation at high spatio-temporal yields, and has the highest average selectivity in the cycle, which is the best choice for new large-scale installations to reduce investment and avoid engineering bottlenecks, and is also the best catalyst choice for capacity expansion and transformation and improving asset utilization. The high-tolerance catalyst can withstand high water vapor content and high spatio-temporal yield and is used when the device has special needs.

Editor: Shell's ethylene oxide process technology level has also been market-leading, can you talk about it?

Chen Jun: Shell's ethylene oxide/glycol process includes the traditional MASTER process, the catalytic hydration OMEGA process and the high-purity ethylene oxide process, all three of which are used in China, plus the three catalyst families introduced earlier are also used in China. China is currently the world's most competitive ethylene oxide/glycol process and catalyst market, every customer is facing one kind or another challenge, Shell's differentiated catalyst family and process line can provide customers with customized, diversified solutions to meet different customer needs, I think this is probably the most attractive place for Shell technology and products.

Editor: As the market with the most development potential in China, what are the characteristics of shell's technical service team deployed in China?

Chen Jun: Shell began to establish an ethylene oxide/glycol catalyst technical service team in China in 2011, and currently has 7 full-time service personnel and a mobile laboratory in China, serving more than 20 key customers in China, with catalyst loading doses exceeding 60% of all devices in the Chinese market. The content of our technical services includes performance prediction and economic and technical evaluation of catalyst pre-selection, start-up and operation training of catalysts, on-site technical guidance for catalyst loading, on-site guidance for catalyst start-up, handling of catalyst abnormalities, on-site technical support for analytical instrument problems, analysis and evaluation after catalyst unloading, forming a complete set of technical service systems to avoid catalyst operation failures and ensure that catalysts are in an optimized operating state. The China team is also one of Shell's most experienced teams in the world for ethylene oxide catalysts. Together with our customers, they will provide the most appropriate solution for every new project and every catalyst change.

Source: Chemical 707