Butadiene Technology

Butadiene Technology

Butadiene is used primarily as a monomer for manufacturing synthetic rubber and plastics. Smaller amounts are used as a chemical intermediate for producing other chemicals.

Nearly all butadiene is produced as a co-product of the steam cracking of hydrocarbon feedstocks to make ethylene.

Deethanizer bottom which contains a mixture of C3s and heavier components is fed to Butadiene Extraction Plant, where C3s and C5+ are separated as by products, and 1,3 Butadiene is extracted using BASF NMP Process

Process Description of BASF NMP Process:

NMP Process from BASF is the most widely applied process for the extraction of 1,3 butadiene. The NMP process exhibits remarkable flexibility: its low susceptibility to impurities makes the NMP process capable of processing any industrial C4 feedstock mixture, It operates economically, even with low butadiene content feedstocks. Compared to competing technologies, NMP’s resistance to hydrolysis and thermal decomposition reduces solvent consumption by up to 90% or more. Simultaneously, the process provides a high yield (>98%) of particularly high purity (>99.7%) butadiene.

Butadiene Plant comprise basically six sections: Prefractionation (Depropanizer and Debutanizer), Feed Vaporization, Extractive Distillation 1 (Main Washer), Extractive Distillation 2 (Rectifier/Afterwasher), Product Purification (Butadiene Column) and Degassing (Degasser).

Stable electrical power is the key factor of petrochemical industry success.

Based on this concept Ethydco vision was formed to build our power station to achieve complete independency and to secure reliable power with the Vision to be a power hub to the new upcoming projects of the ambitious development plan of petrochemical sector.

Ethydco has taken the responsibility of bringing the project to reality within shortest execution time and less investment cost. This was how phase one of the project was launched

With Enppi - the engineering arm of the petroleum sector- the most global reputative vendors of gas turbines was invited to bid. This bid was finally awarded to Siemens with SGT- 800 GTG as well as the high voltage GIS 66 KV switchgear.

The Siemens SGT-800 industrial gas turbine combines a reliable robust design with high efficiency and low emissions. The turbine offers broad flexibility in fuels, operation conditions, maintenance concepts, package solutions and ratings. Capable of single-digit NOx and CO.

Successfully, Ethydco, Enppi and EMC (the construction contractor) started the power plant in March 2017.

The second phase of the project is to be connected to the national grid as a back-up for emergencies, black start-up with the facility to export power to the grid through a standard transformer substation 220/66/11 KV were completed.

Based on the rising demand on power especially after turning to free energy price, the plan shall be completed by applying the combined cycle to the power plant which will maximize the utilization of the fuel gas and achieve the highest performance and efficiency to complete the third phase of the project.

By finishing the third phase of the Power Plant project, Ethydco will reach the planned target and the vision will be a fact.

ETHYDCO manufactures Solution polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber “SSBR” and Low-Cis polybutadiene Rubber “LCBR” which is a family of rubber products using VERSALIS technology, that allow producing LCBR using the s-SBR reactors by only modifying the feed of the monomer and catalyst.

The wide product portfolio allowed by the VERSALIS technology can be used for manufacturing s-SBR which is the raw material for high performance and special tyres, with enhanced wet grip performance as well as for manufacturing winter tyres, where the lowest fuel consumption and the highest durability are required. LCBR is also used in producing tyres, but mostly as a plastic modifier (such as HIPS and continuous mass ABS).

ETHYDCO boasts a complete portfolio in this field, marked by high quality levels, featuring high flexibility in response to market demands and different sectors of application.

The below figure illustrates an overview about VERSALIS s-SBR/LCBR process:

As Egypt strategy to save water consumption in both domestic and industrial usage, Ethydco take lead in new trend in water reuse technology to have Z ero L iquid D ischarge (ZLD), that will maximize the usage of incoming water as much as possible which lead to reduce/ Save the imported water from the River Nile

Accordingly AQUATECH has been awarded a contract by the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (ETHYDCO) to provide a water treatment facility that includes the first integrated Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) plant in Egypt.

The awarding of this contract was commemorated on Monday, 25 March as a bold initiative undertaken by ETHYDCO, which will be the pioneer in installing a Zero Liquid Discharge plant. The feed water to the plant will be a composite mix of treated effluent and water from River Nile, having inconsistent water chemistry throughout the year.

After a lot of due diligence done by ETHYDCO and its consultant Enppi, Aquatech’s proposed schematic was selected because it can optimally treat this type of feed water With this plant in place, ETHYDCO shall meet all the requisite norms of Zero Liquid Discharge established by the Egyptian government to protect their only life-giving aquifer, The River Nile. The success of this project is keenly viewed by the Egyptian government and the industry in this region. Once successful, it shall become a beacon for other industries not only in Egypt, but also GCC countries, to follow.”The ZLD plant was installed at ETHYDCO’s site in Alexandria. A subsidiary of Egyptian Holding Co. for Petrochemical (ECHEM),ETHYDCO produces ethylene and other petroleum derivatives at this site. The plant designed and installed by Aquatech will treat wastewater from this facility and cooling tower blow down to get cooling tower makeup water, Demineralized water and achieve Zero Liquid Discharge TM The technology provided by Aquatech is a microfiltration system, a High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis (HERO ) system, followed by Fractional Electro Deionization (FEDI ) and brine concentrator, and finally a crystallizer and sludge treatment system.