UpdateConverting acetone to IPA could counter surplus - ex-Shell exec

16 June 2010 14:56  [Source: ICIS news]

(adds paragraphs 7-9, expands paragraph 13)

By Mark Victory

LONDON (ICIS news)--Conversion to isopropanol (IPA) could counteract an expected surplus of acetone within the next five years, a former Shell executive said on Wednesday.

“Is it 100,000 tonnes [of excess acetone] next year? Probably not, but it will start to be a problem from now, and it will happen in the next five years,” said David Young, an ex-solvents and phenol manager at Shell Chemicals.

The expectation of the surplus of acetone was due to forecasts of stronger worldwide phenol growth than acetone in the next five years. Acetone is a by-product of phenol - one tonne of phenol produces 0.62 tonnes of acetone.

Acetone could be taken up by the IPA market because IPA is cheaper to produce using acetone than propylene, which is the most commonly used feedstock, according to Young.

He added that IPA and acetone prices closely followed each other, and that in the past 10 years there was an average €200/tonne spread between the two products.

“Conversion to IPA for me is probably the way forward [for acetone] and probably the way to solve the [surplus] problem,” Young added during a speech at the 6th ICIS World Phenol-Acetone conference.

The global IPA market was around 1.8m tonnes/year, he said.

Uses for IPA made from acetone include the manufacture of mono isopropyl amine (MIPA), which is used as a feedstock for making weed killer. A US custom processor, Halterman, is making methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) and IPA from acetone.

On the economics of making IPA from acetone, Young estimated a cash cost of $100-150/tonne. However, a plant would need access to hydrogen, which can be expensive.

His comments echoed those made earlier in the day by Michael Foeste, phenol product manager at Mitsui & Co Deutschland, who predicted that there could be a 200,000 tonne/year surplus of acetone by 2015.

Foeste also saw IPA as a growth downstream area for acetone, led by demand from Asia for semiconductors, an end-use product for IPA.

“We don’t have exact figures, but we expect 5-6% yearly growth [for IPA globally until 2015],” Foeste said during a question and answer session after his speech.

Novapex began commercial deliveries at a 40,000 tonne/year IPA plant in Roussilin, France, on 22 January 2010, using acetone as the feedstock. LG is also already converting acetone into IPA.

On the sidelines of the conference there were expectations that there could be an increased number of global plants producing IPA from acetone in the near future.

“Certainly there have been players talking about it,” an acetone producer said.

($1 = €0.81)

Additional reporting by Peter Taffe

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By: Mark Victory
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