Clariant to Supply Petrochemical Catalysts

Clariant wins major contracts to supply petrochemical catalysts for Chinese Lihuayi Group. Clariant's Catalysts business has secured three new contracts from Chinese Lihuayi Group for upcoming petrochemical production units. The agreements include three high-performance catalysts from Clariant for ethylene, styrene and propylene production. [caption id="attachment_137276" align="aligncenter"] Clariant's StyroMax rib-shaped catalysts to minimize pressure drop in styrene production.[/caption] Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Clariant Catalysts, said: "We are extremely honored to be selected by Lihuayi Group for this major assignment. We owe this success to our strong commitment to customer needs and our broad catalyst portfolio that optimally supports our new customer's petrochemical production processes." Yan Chuanliang, Head of Engineering Department at Lihuayi Group, said: "We are very satisfied with Clariant's complete solution package and are convinced that the combination of catalyst, service and expertise will provide a high return on our investment. We look forward with anticipation to the successful commissioning of the first plants." From Clariant's ethylene catalyst line, Lihuayi selected the OleMax 101 catalyst for a 1,000 KTA olefin unit to recover high-value olefins from cracked gas and off-gas streams. The OleMax 100 series is used to purify gas streams for acetylene, dienes, oxygen, nitrogen oxides and heavy metals in a single reactor, enabling high-cost olefin production. Lihuayi's new 720 KTA styrene unit will rely on Clariant's StyroMax UL 3 rib-shaped styrene catalyst. The catalyst can produce styrene monomer extremely efficiently due to its high activity, excellent selectivity and reliable performance under ultra-low vapor-oil conditions. When these factors come together, they provide higher quality styrene yields along with higher efficiency, as well as lower energy consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. The third Lihuayi facility for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) will have a design capacity of 600 KTA and will operate with Clariant's custom-made CATOFIN catalysts and Heat-Generating Material (HGM). CATOFIN is a proven, highly reliable dehydrogenation catalyst used for the production of olefins such as propylene or isobutylene from light paraffin feedstocks. Since 2017, CATOFIN technology and catalysts have been selected for 33 new projects representing more than 23,000 KTA of new propylene capacity worldwide. More than half of these have been or will be built in China. Based in Dongying region, Shandong Province, Lihuayi Group is a leading industrial group in China for the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, textile and apparel industries. As a rapidly growing manufacturer, Lihuayi continuously seeks innovative and sustainable solutions in these sectors. Source