Dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) is used mainly to produce polyester resins, fibres and films as well as engineering polymers.
The largest polyester sector is the fibres market where it is used to make clothes, home textiles such as sheets and curtains, carpets and rugs, and industrial products such as tyre cord, seat belts, hoses and ropes. Globally, this sector is growing at around 5%/year but with nearly all the growth in Asia at the expense of Europe and North America.
The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resin market has also been growing strongly as PET resins have replaced glass in carbonated soft drinks, bottled water and food containers. Globally, this market is growing at 7%/year although it is slowing in those markets where the replacement of glass is becoming complete.
PET film is utilised in electrical applications such as dielectric metal foil capacitors and for food packaging. The film sector is the slowest growing polyester market at around 2%/year.
However, the growth in polyester has not been converted into DMT demand. For most grades of polyester used in textiles and food and beverage containers, it is more economical to use purified terephthalic acid (PTA) rather than DMT. Consequently, demand for DMT in these applications is declining. In addition, the trend towards integrating PET manufacture back to paraxylene could lead to the phasing out of DMT.
On the other hand, DMT can be used in engineering resins, such as polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), which is experiencing growth above GDP levels. For film applications, DMT can be preferred due to its adhesion addition quality.
Overall, world DMT demand is expected to decline by 0.5%/year in the 2006-2011 period. This is being matched by plant closures or the conversion of DMT plants to make other products such as biofuels.
In the US, the decline in demand for DMT appears to have slowed and the market stabilised. According to ICB, US demand of 1.13m tonnes in 2006 will remain unchanged for the rest of the decade. In 2006, imports were 1950 tonnes and exports were 2770 tonnes.
(Updated: January 2008. Sources: ICB Chemical Profile, 5 November 2007)
Dimethyl terephthalate
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Dimethyl terephthalate
Process Technologies
The traditional process to manufacture DMT utilises the esterification of terephthalic acid with methanol generated by catalytic homogeneous oxidation of paraxylene, developed partly because of the difficulty of purifying TPA produced by this process.
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