The Petrochemical Research and Technology Company of Iran finalized an agreement with France's Air Liquide Engineering and Construction Company on transferring state-of-the-art technology and granting much-needed licenses to convert methanol to propylene under PARS MTP brand.
According to the National Petrochemical Company's news agency, the deal was signed in Germany on Wednesday in the presence of Esmaeil Qanbari, the head of PRTC, Hossein Alimorad, NPC's deputy for investment as well as Air Liquide's top officials.
"PRTC has launched a pilot polypropylene production unit with a limited output of 120,000 tons per annum," Qanbari said, noting that plans are in place to raise the production of the complex to 500,000 tons per year in cooperation with energy majors, namely Air Liquide.
Air Liquide is an engineering, construction and chemical process licensing company. Since 2007, it has been part of Air Liquide S.A., a multinational company that supplies industrial gases and services to industries. PRTC is the research and development arm of NPC.
"To complete the value chain of the petrochemical industry, NPC has set a tight schedule to boost polypropylene production, which entails cooperation between PRTC and multinationals," he said.
According to NPC reports, plans call for increasing propylene production to 4 million tons per annum in 2021 and 8 million tons within the next decade.
Qanbari believes collaboration with international license holders like Air Liquide can help PRTC have a say in competitive global markets.
Referring to other advantages of the deal, he noted that minimizing the investment risks, developing domestic experts' knowledge, increasing the speed of undertaking petrochemical projects, facilitating technical know-how transfer to the country, completing value-added chains in petrochemical industries and connecting upstream, midstream and downstream sectors are among the most notable benefits of such contracts.
"Necessary infrastructures are available in PRTC," he added, noting that relying on domestic researchers' experience will help the firm not only create jobs but also indigenize advanced know-how.
"Our technology for producing propylene from methanol offers clients lower costs and its propylene product can be used as feedstock for a variety of other petrochemical processes," an unnamed Air Liquide official said.
According to the firm's website, it combines cutting-edge innovation with a comprehensive portfolio of proprietary technology to contribute to the transformation of many industries.
--- Lingering Talks
According to Qanbari, PRTC has also held lengthy talks with companies from Norway and Japan on purchasing petrochemical know-how, though no agreement has been reached yet.
NPC has already concluded an MoU with Sojitz Corporation, a major Japanese industrial and engineering conglomerate, to establish a methanol-to-propylene plant in Iran.
The deal is part of effort to raise installed petrochemical production capacity to 130 million tons annually by 2020.
PRTC signed an MoU with Norway's Norner institute this year on providing Iranian petrochemical industry with the expertise to develop polypropylene production.
Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications, including packaging and labeling, textiles, carpets, stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components and polymer banknotes.
Polypropylene is the world's second-most widely produced synthetic plastic, after polyethylene.
Iran's nominal output capacity stands at 62 million tons of petrochemicals per annum, while actual production is expected to reach about 60 million tons by March 2018.
