BUTADIENE

Butadiene is chemical which formula is C4H6. It has several important industrial uses. When the word butadiene is used, it refers to 1,3-butadiene

Butadiene is used primarily as a monomer in the production of a wide range of polymers. It is also used as an intermediate in the production of several chemicals

Most of butadiene is polymerized to produce synthetic rubbers

BUTADIENE PRODUCTION

Currently, butadiene is produced commercially by three [3] processes :

1. Steam Cracking of Paraffinic Hydrocarbons as feed stock - in this process, butadiene is a coproduct in the manufacture of ethylene (the ethylene co-product process)

2. Catalytic Dehydrogenation of n-Butane and n-Butene (the Houdry process)

3. Oxidative Dehydrogenation of n-Butene (the Oxo-D or O-X-D process)

Note : The steam cracking process [ethylene production] is

reported to be the predominant method of the three processes of production, accounting for greater than 91% of the world's butadiene supply

STEAM CRACKING Steam cracking [ethylene production] plants

use a variety of feedstocks like :

1. Ethane, propane and butane from natural gas

2. Naphtha, a mixture of C5 to C10 hydrocarbons, from the distillation of crude oil

3. Gas oil and residues, also from the primary distillation of oil

Steam cracking [ethylene production] licensors:

MW Kellogg Stone and Webster Linde Phillips Brown & Root Braun Shell Lummus Crest Technip Lurgi Halcon-SD KTI

TYPICAL STEAM CRACKING PLANT

Figure 1. A view of the steam crackers at Ludwigshafen in German - by kind permission of BASF (http://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/processes/cracking-isomerisation-and-reforming.html)

TYPICAL STEAM CRACKING PLANT

Crude Butadiene

Cracking Furnaces Quench Gasoline

Stripper

Caustic Scrubber

Process Gas Dryer

CompressionD

emet

hani

zer

Dee

than

iniz

er

Dep

ropa

nize

r

Deb

utan

izer

RawPyrolysis Gasoline

Fuel Oil

Hydrogen

Fuel Gas

Ethylene

Propylene

C

Split

ter

CAcetylene Converter

C S

plitt

er

Heat Exchange

Feedstocks Ethane Propane Butane Naphtha Gasoil

CAcetylene Converter

Ethane Propane

Note :

The flow path of the C4 components (including butadiene) are indicated by red bold lines

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

1,3-butadiene should be separated from other C4 compound in crude butadiene to meet sales requirement

Figure 2. Example composition of crude butadiene (http://www.americanchemistry.com/ProductsTechnology/Olefins/Butadiene-Product-Stewardship-Guidance-Manual.pdf)

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

Figure 3. Major Butadiene Recovery Processes (http://www.americanchemistry.com/ProductsTechnology/Olefins/Butadiene-Product-Stewardship-Guidance-Manual.pdf)

Please see next slide for simple explanation for each butadiene recovery processes

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

Process A : Acetylene Hydrogenation/Extractive Distillation using MOPN/Furfural

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

Process B : Extractive and Conventional Distillation using NMP [licenced by BASF]

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

Process C : DMF Solvent Extraction Process [licenced by Nippon Zeon]

BUTADIENE PURIFICATION

Process D : Aqueous Separation and CAN Extraction Process [licenced by Shell and LyondellBasell Industries]

USES OF BUTADIENE