The construction of Alay Mahestan Petrochemical Company in Asalouyeh has registered 30% progress, the head of the Board of Directors at the Oil Industry Pension Funds said.
“The project, which includes the construction of a Propane Dehydrogenation [PDH] unit, a Polypropylene [PP] unit and a utility unit, is expected to progress by 64% by the end of the current Iranian year [March 2024],” Abdolhossein Bayat was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news service Shana.
“Currently, the propane produced in the upstream sector is sold in raw form. If we can convert propane into propylene, we will create a higher added value,” he added.
The official noted that two foreign companies had the knowhow of converting propane to propylene, but it was not possible to get the license for the PDH unit due to the sanctions.
“Therefore, domestic knowledge-based companies did their best to indigenize its knowhow,” he said.
According to Bayat, after propane is converted to propylene and in the next step to polypropylene, the added value of this product rises to approximately twice the price of propane.
“Each ton of propane is sold in the Persian Gulf market for around $600, but each ton of polypropylene fetches more than $1,300,” he said.
The feed used for this petrochemical will be provided by Kangan Petro-Refining Company. The PDH and PP units will have an annual capacity of 450,000 tons each.
PDH is used to produce polymer-grade propylene from propane independent of a steam cracker or fluid catalytic cracking unit.
Propylene is the second most important product in the petrochemical industry after ethylene. It is the raw material for plastic polypropylene, which is mainly used in the automotive, textile and packaging industries.
The primary source of propylene is from cracking naphtha and other liquids such as gas oil and condensates to produce ethylene. However, propane can also be used to produce propylene.
At present, about 1 million tons of propylene are produced annually in the country and the output is expected to increase by 3 million tons or 300% over the next three years.
Propylene is a strategic commodity in the petrochemical industries. It can be transformed into value added products like polypropylene and create jobs in the downstream petrochemical sector.
Polypropylene – the world's second-most widely produced synthetic plastic, after polyethylene – is used in a variety of applications, including packaging, labeling, textiles, carpets, stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive parts and polymer banknotes.
