Petrochemical plants use $275 million worth of catalysts annually, a majority of which is produced locally, managing director of the National Petrochemical Company said.
“The key industry needs 95 types of catalysts, 70% of which worth $200 million are produced with the help of domestic firms,” IRNA also quoted Behzad Mohammadi as saying on Friday.
Iranian companies use at least 25,000 tons of catalysts per annum. Due to the large size of Iran’s petrochemical sector, most of the demand comes from affiliated firms. Private companies produce 18,000 tons of catalysts a year, covering most of the demand.
Petrochem catalysts are produced by several local companies, namely Sarv Oil and Gas, Pars Pigment and Catalyst, Gahar Seram, Nano Pars Spadana and Pishgaman Catalyst Pars, he added.
Catalyst consumption is rising and local companies are strengthening their R&D units to add to their prowess, as they race to keep up with the times and not fall back from their foreign competitors.
Mohammadi noted that at present and in the future, self-sufficiency in catalyst production will be vital for the petrochem industry.
A catalyst speeds up a chemical reaction but is not consumed by the reaction. Most solid catalysts are metals or oxides, sulfides and halides of metallic elements and of the semi-metallic elements such as boron, aluminum and silicon.
NPC plans to indigenize nine more types of catalysts with the help of private companies by 2022, he said, without providing details.
“Catalysts play an essential role in the production of polymers and chemicals, and that is why the petrochemical industry’s growth is intertwined with the level of catalyst production,” he added.
The production of most key chemicals depends on catalysts. Selecting the right material for each product is a sensitive issue because any error in the catalyst can bring the entire petrochemical plant to a halt.
Global Market
Referring to global figures, the NPC official said the global catalyst market is worth $18 billion per annum and expected to reach $35 billion in 2025.
According to Mohammadi, Petrochemical Research and Technology Company has started selling SAC500 catalyst to domestic petrochemical companies for increasing the production of value-added goods.
"This type of catalyst plays a key role in the production of pipe-grade high density polyethylene,” he said.
Sabalan Petrochemical Company in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, has started using domestically-made hydrodesulphurization (HDS) catalysts for the first time in the country to support domestic manufacturers.
The official said that due to the US sanctions, the company could not import this type of catalyst that is exclusively made by the Danish chemical company Haldor Topsoe.
HDS is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulfur from natural gas and produce refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel and fuel oils.
Petrochem Output
The 67 petrochemical companies in Iran produced 35 million tons in 2020, of which 27 million tons were exported, he said.
“Exports earned $10 billion while 8 million tons of petrochemicals worth $5 billion were sold in the domestic market.”
Demand for oil derivatives rises by 0.9% per year globally while the figure stands at 5% for petrochemical products, indicating the importance of the strategic sector, he added.
According to the official, petrochem plants across the country received 40 million tons of feedstock, including condensates, ethane, natural gas and naphtha in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2021) that was equivalent to 1 million barrels of crude per day.
“This will rise to 2 million barrels per day in 2025.”
With the inauguration of new complexes, the number of petrochemical plants will reach 77 over the next four years, up 15% compared to 2021.
“NPC has invested $80 billion in petrochem plans over the past four decades,” he said, adding that $25 billion are expected to be invested in the key sector in the next four years.
The NPC chief noted that petrochemical revenues from exports and domestic sales in seven years exceeded $110 billion.
Unlike other major industries that have not grown over the last two years primarily due to the US economic siege, petrochemical output has risen by 30%.
