BP has new ethyl acetate process

12 August 1997 14:43  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--BP Chemicals has developed a new technology to produce ethyl acetate directly from ethylene and acetic acid, the company announced Tuesday.

Most of BP's 250 000 tonne/year annual production of ethyl acetate, the world's largest, is based on esterification of ethanol with acetic acid. But ethanol supply, especially in the Far East, is often affected by tariffs and import restrictions.

David Smith, product group manager for solvents, told CNI: "(Ethyl acetate) has been a traditional, largely European business until the last four or five years when we have been pursuing a fairly ambitious growth strategy, mostly in the Far East. What this technology gives us is much greater flexibility in terms of manufacturing routes for ethyl acetate."

The new technology centres on a solid acid catalyst. Patents have been applied for worldwide and are at the "second filing" stage with no objections received, Smith said.

BP hopes to have a plant based on the new technology up and running by the end of the decade, Smith said. He would not give further details, but said the technology cannot be retrofitted to existing plants.

Development plans "depend very much on what we do in terms of synthetic ethanol," Smith said. BP's major Chinese project with Shanghai Petrochemical could include ethanol manufacture and hence ethyl acetate via conventional esterification, he said, but this was not yet decided. The capital cost of the new technology is higher than for esterification but the plant economics are similar. It will be licensed only to BP joint ventures.

BP currently has three ethyl acetate plants in Europe, two using esterification and one in Italy employing the Tischenko ethylene-acetaldehyde-ethyl acetate route, which has a high capital cost. BP also has a 45% share in the International Ester Company (IEC) esterification plant in Korea, which is being expanded from its current 45 000 tonne/year to around 75 000 tonne/year of ethyl acetate and butyl acetate in early 1998.

By: Grace Williams
+44 208 652 3214

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