A project to produce catalysts used in polypropylene and high-density polyethylene will be launched at the Arak Center of the Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, Markazi Province, in the coming weeks, managing director of the National Petrochemical Company said.
“The vision of the petrochemical industry is to produce catalysts with domestic knowhow and reduce imports,” the NPC news website Nipna quoted Behzad Mohammadi as saying.
Referring to the progress of his company in producing petrochemical catalysts and acquiring the advanced technical knowhow, he said: “Last year, production of polypropylene from natural gas started in Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, by PRTC experts and engineers and a similar project is underway in Eslamabad-e-Gharb in Kermanshah Province.”
The semi-industrial unit in Arak to produce polypropylene and HDPE catalysts is designed to produce 1,200 tons a year. The methanol to propylene unit in Mahshahr, launched last year, produces 40 kg of propylene from methanol per hour.
Iran accounts for 5% of the world's methanol production and most of it is exported to Iraq, China, the UAE, India and South Korea.
However, turning methanol into propylene creates added value. Propylene output is about 980,000 tons per year. However, domestic demand is much higher and plans are underway to increase production to 4 million tons by constructing three plants in three cities namely Amirabad in Mazandaran Province, Bandar Anzali in Gilan Province, and Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province.
Propylene is a colorless fuel gas with a naturally pungent smell. It is a key commodity in the petrochemical industry and 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 and labeling, textiles, carpets, stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive parts and polymer banknotes.
Kermanshah Project
Construction of Eslamabad-e-Gharb Petrochemical Plant in Kermanshah started in February and is expected to be ready by 2024.
With an estimated cost of $545 million, the project is an undertaking of the NPC and will annually produce 120,000 tons of polypropylene. It will be built in three phases. In the first, natural gas will be converted into about 660,000 tons of methanol a year.
The second phase will be conversion of methanol into propylene with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons, and the last phase will be production of 120,000 tons of polypropylene a year.
When operational, 2.1 mcm of natural gas will be delivered to Eslamabad-e-Gharb Petrochemical Plant every day.
PRTC is the mainstay for R&D in the key petrochemical industry.
Shazand Plant
In related news, Nipna reported the Shazand Petrochemical Company in Markazi Province has managed to improve production of polypropylene random copolymers are used for making insulin syringe cylinders and three-piece syringes.
Polypropylene random copolymers are thermoplastic resins produced through the polymerization of propylene, with ethylene or butene bonds introduced in the polymer chain.
Iran consumes about 2 million insulin syringes per day. In the past raw material for the production of this type of syringe was made of Hyosung J801 polypropylene grade imported from South Korea. However, in the past three years imports faced mounting hurdles due to the US economic blockade.
Former US president, Donald Trump, in 2018 abrogated the 2015 historic nuclear deal signed between Iran and the six world powers and imposed new sanctions on Iran’s key sectors, namely oil, banking and shipping under his infamous ‘maximum pressure’ policy.
Researchers and specialists at the Shazand Petrochemical Company have succeeded in producing resins for making insulin syringes and discontinue imports.
