Huntsman (chemical plant)

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Huntsman Chemical Company of Australia Pty Ltd (HCCA) operated a complex chemical manufacturing plant in Somerville Rd Brooklyn in Melbourne. The site is 35 hectares in size and is located in the City of Brimbank. HCCA was partially owned by the Huntsman Corporation.

Contents

History

The site was established in 1941 during World War II to manufacture aspirin and sulfa drugs. For most of its life the site has been owned and operated by the Monsanto Company Corporation. In 1988 Monsanto sold all of its Australian non-agricultural operations to Consolidated Press Holdings and Chemplex Australia Ltd was created. In 1993 Consolidated Press Holdings and Huntsman Chemical Corporation established the present joint venture partnership i.e. Huntsman Chemical Company of Australia Pty Ltd. The plant was shut down in December 2009 with the polyester business sold to Nuplex. [1] Plant buildings and manufacturing facilities were demolished in 2011. [2] Pelligra purchased the vacated plant site in 2018 to build a business park. [3]

Styrene Monomer

Styrene is produced in a continuous plant that was commissioned in 1977. The Styrene Plant consists of 7 units

Tank Farm

This is located at the west end of the site near Market Rd. These tanks are used to store for raw materials for the other units of the Styrene Plant. The company purchases amination grade benzene and also a material called BTX. Both are liquids. BTX stands for Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene. BTX is a mixture of these chemical species plus many other species. Both liquids are stored in large steel tanks surrounded by concrete bunds. The tanks vent to a pair of carbon beds that collect most of the gaseous discharge from the tanks. When road tankers unload liquid benzene or BTX into the respective tanks, vapour rich in these materials is discharged from the tank vent and is trapped in activated carbon beds. Benzene and BTX are purchased overseas and is transported to nearby Coode Island where it is unloaded from ships and stored in a similar tank farm before being transported by road to the West Footscray site. The tank farm also contains similar tanks that contain the finished product styrene monomer and various intermediate liquids. See descriptions of these materials in the other sections below.

Ethylene

The ethylene plant produces ethylene (also known as ethene) from ethane. Ethylene and ethane are both gases. The ethane flows to the plant via a pipeline ultimately from Bass Strait oil and gas wells. The ethylene is produced by steam cracking. In this process, gaseous ethane briefly heated to 750–950 °C in a thermal cracker. The cracker is a large box with many gas burners and long sections of pipe inside. The ethane flows inside the pipe and is partially converted to ethylene and hydrogen. The reaction is moderated or improved by the addition of hydrogen sulfide. This material is usually supplied from the Litol plant or if this plant is not running dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) is used. The rest of the plant is principally involved with purifying and compressing this gas stream to a concentration suitable for the Alkylation plant. A four-stage compression plant is used to purify the ethylene. The gas mixture is washed with water and caustic to remove acid gas and sulfides. Ethylene is produced by cryogenic separation. The ethylene product of this plant is not stored but piped directly to the Alkylation plant where it is consumed. If the Alkylation plant cannot accept the ethylene, the gas is sent to the flare.

One product of this cryogenic separation is a hydrogen rich stream that is used in the Litol plant. Propylene is used as the refrigerant in the cryogenic distillation section of the plant.

Litol

BTX is purified in this plant into amination grade benzene. The major chemical process in this plant is dealkylation which is really the opposite of that occurring in the Alkylation plant (see section below). Toluene is also called methyl benzene. In this plant toluene is converted into benzene and methane. The xylene ( a group of three dimethyl benzenes) in the BTX are similarly converted to benzene and methane. This requires hydrogen which is supplied in a gaseous stream from the Ethylene plant (see above). The reaction is completed in a pair of reactors in series at high temperature and high pressure. The methane and other gaseous products are separated from the benzene and the other liquids. The mixture of benzene, xylenes etc. is then purified in two distillation columns. The benzene is then stored in the tank farm before use a raw material in the Alkylation Plant.

Alkylation

In this plant the gaseous ethylene and the liquid benzene are combined with the aim of making ethylbenzene. Alkylation is a basic chemical process where an alkyl group is added to another molecule. This plant uses a variation on the Friedel-Crafts reaction. Aluminium chloride is used to make a complex with polyethylbenzene. This complex is then circulated as the catalyst for the reaction. The reaction takes place in a chemical reactor. The products of this plant contains a mixture of benzene, ethylbenzene, and smaller quantities of a few polyethylbenzes. This mixture is sent to the Alkylation Distillation plant via storage in the tank farm.

Alkylation Distillation

This plant consists of four distillation columns. Three of the columns in this section have their own direct fired reboilers. The benzene drying column has a conventional steam heated reboiler. This plant produces a pure stream of ethylbenzene that is used in the dehydrogenation plant.

Dehydrogenation

The main reaction in this plant is the conversion of ethylbenzene to styrene. It is a dehydrogenation reaction because two hydrogen atoms are removed from ethylbenzene to give styrene. The reaction is endothermic. The heat to drive this reaction is provided by steam. The reaction takes place in a large single fixed bed catalytic reactor.

Dehydrogenation Distillation

Styrene is separated from ethyl benzene in a very tall continuously packed distillation tower. This separation is difficult because of the close boiling points of ethylbenzene and styrene; 136 degrees C and 145 degrees C respectively. This column is the tallest distillation column in Australia. The ethylbenzene coming out of the column is recycled to the Alkylation plant. To prevent the self polymerization of the styrene at the temperatures in the column an inhibitor is added to the mixture of ethylbenzene and styrene before it enters the column. There are two other distillation columns in this plant. All three operate under vacuum. Pure styrene is transferred to the tank farm. Styrene is a clear colourless liquid with a sickly sweet odour.

Styrene Plant Utilities

The plant has the following utilities:

Other Plants

In January 2007, Huntsman announced the completion of the sale of this business including its gelcoat and vinylesters business to Nuplex Industries Ltd (Nuplex) for $US7.5 million plus the value of stock on hand.

To support the operating units the site has a boiler house, laboratories, maintenance workshops, warehouses an effluent treatment plant and offices.

Shutdown Units

Since the early 1980s several of the operating units have been shut down for various reasons. Shut down units are listed below.

Cumene-Phenol Plant

This continuous plant was started up in 1968 when it was the Royal Australian Chemical Institute "Plant of the Year". It shut down and dismantled in 2005. The Cumene-Phenol plant was the third plant to produce phenol on the West Footscray site. The site has been completely dismantled except for the old control room.

It is called the Cumene-Phenol plant because of the intermediate materials is cumene or isopropylbenzene in the cumene process. It produces equimolar amounts of phenol and acetone. It was the only Cumene-Phenol plant built in Australia. Some cumene-hydroperoxide an organic peroxide was also sold.

There are 7 units in this plant

Cumene

The two main raw materials in this process are benzene and propylene. Benzene is a liquid that was purchased overseas and stored on the site in one tank. In 1996 this plant was decommissioned when all benzene on site was stored in the Styrene Plant tank farm. Propylene is a gas and was supplied to the site from Mobil Refinery Altona which is about 7 km away by truck. Propylene was stored in one high pressure tank. These two material were reacted in an alkylation reaction. The reaction took place in fixed bed catalytic reactor. The catalyst was a mixture of phosphoric acid on a clay base. The reactor produced a mixture of cumene, propylene and benzene. These materials were separated in two distillation columns; the depropaniser and the benzene column. There were two tanks that could be used to store cumene before it was sent to Oxidation.

Oxidation

This section of the plant converts cumene into a mixture of cumene hydroperoxide and cumene. The reaction took place in four reactors. Each reactor was supplied with air from one large positive displacement compressor. The four reactors operated in series. The fourth oxidizer was a later addition to the plant in approximately 1981. Each oxider was run at a carefully controlled temperature, pressure and level of residual oxygen to optimize the production of the hydroperoxide. This section of the plant produced a large volume of residual air that contained small amounts of cumene; a highly odorous material. Carbon beds were installed to remove the cumene from this stream in the 1980s.

Stripping

The cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) is concentrated in this section. The rich stream of CHP is not stored due to its high instability at this concentration, but sent straight to the cleavage section.

Cleavage

A small steady stream of sulfuric acid is added to catalyse the cleavage reaction. In this reaction the CHP splits open and rearranges itself into two molecules; one each of phenol and acetone. Since the reaction is very unstable the Cleavage Reactor operated under strict temperature and acidity control with a high level of acetone reflux. The reactor was also equipped with emergency firewater injection.

Distillation

The mixture from the cleavage reactor was flash distilled in the Evaporator. This removed most of the acetone and phenol from a heavy tar material. The rest of the plant consists of several conventional distillation columns that produced a pure stream of phenol, one of acetone, a heavy oil stream and crude alpha methyl styrene (a byproduct). The crude alpha methyl styrene was purified by a batch distillation process. This used a conventional steam fired reboiler distillation column in the previous or Scientific Design (SD) Phenol Plant.

Tank farm

The tank farm had tanks for benzene, cumene, phenol ( pure and an 88% solution of phenol in water), alpha-methylstyrene and heavy ends tar. The phenol tanks had steam coils to keep the phenol liquid. Phenol melts at 45 degrees.

Utilities

The plant consumes steam supplied by the boiler house. The phenol plant had three levels of steam and condensate collection that returned the hot steam condensate to the boiler house. The heavy ends tar was sent to the boiler house as a supplement to the natural gas fuel used in boiler number 4. The sulphuric acid used as a catalyst in the cleavage reactor left the process via the heavy ends. The sulfate in this tar stream gave a blue tinge to the otherwise clear plume from number four boiler house stack. There was also a gas flare to burn the by product propane. This material was an imputirtiy in the propylene. Normally it was condensed, stored in high pressure tanks and sold. Waste water was collected and treated at the site effluent treatment plant before being discharged into sewer.

See also

Related Research Articles

Ethylene Chemical compound

Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is a hydrocarbon which has the formula C
2H
4 or H2C=CH2. It is a colorless flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odor when pure. It is the simplest alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds).

Hydrocarbon Organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon

In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic with only weak odours. Because of their diverse molecular structures, it is difficult to generalize further. Most anthropogenic emissions of hydrocarbons are from the burning of fossil fuels including fuel production and combustion. Natural sources of hydrocarbons such as ethylene, isoprene, and monoterpenes come from the emissions of vegetation.

Petrochemical Chemical product derived from petroleum

Petrochemicals are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as maize, palm fruit or sugar cane.

Styrene Chemical compound

Styrene is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5CH=CH2. This derivative of benzene is a colorless oily liquid, although aged samples can appear yellowish. The compound evaporates easily and has a sweet smell, although high concentrations have a less pleasant odor. Styrene is the precursor to polystyrene and several copolymers. Approximately 25 million tonnes of styrene were produced in 2010, increasing to around 35 million tonnes by 2018.

Oil refinery Facility that processes crude oil

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemicals feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day.

The cumene process is an industrial process for synthesizing phenol and acetone from benzene and propylene. The term stems from cumene, the intermediate material during the process. It was invented by R. Ūdris and P. Sergeyev in 1942 (USSR)., and independently by Heinrich Hock in 1944

Cracking (chemistry) Process whereby complex organic molecules are broken down into simpler molecules

In petrochemistry, petroleum geology and organic chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products are strongly dependent on the temperature and presence of catalysts. Cracking is the breakdown of a large alkane into smaller, more useful alkenes. Simply put, hydrocarbon cracking is the process of breaking a long chain of hydrocarbons into short ones. This process requires high temperatures.

Alkylation Transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another

Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion or a carbene (or their equivalents). An alkyl group is a piece of a molecule with the general formula CnH2n+1, where n is the integer depicting the number of carbons linked together. For example, a methyl group (n = 1, CH3) is a fragment of a methane molecule (CH4). Alkylating agents use selective alkylation by adding the desired aliphatic carbon chain to the previously chosen starting molecule. This is one of many known chemical syntheses. Alkyl groups can also be removed in a process known as dealkylation. Alkylating agents are often classified according to their nucleophilic or electrophilic character.

Industrial processes

Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy industry.

Propene, also known as propylene, is an unsaturated organic compound with the chemical formula . It has one double bond, and is the second simplest member of the alkene class of hydrocarbons. It is a colorless gas with a faint petroleum-like odor.

Ethylbenzene Chemical compound

Ethylbenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5CH2CH3. It is a highly flammable, colorless liquid with an odor similar to that of gasoline. This monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon is important in the petrochemical industry as an intermediate in the production of styrene, the precursor to polystyrene, a common plastic material. In 2012, more than 99% of ethylbenzene produced was consumed in the production of styrene.

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are premium blending stocks for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation also produces significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas, which is fed into other refinery processes such as hydrocracking. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis, which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes.

Cumene Chemical compound

Cumene (isopropylbenzene) is an organic compound that is based on an aromatic hydrocarbon with an aliphatic substitution. It is a constituent of crude oil and refined fuels. It is a flammable colorless liquid that has a boiling point of 152 °C. Nearly all the cumene that is produced as a pure compound on an industrial scale is converted to cumene hydroperoxide, which is an intermediate in the synthesis of other industrially important chemicals, primarily phenol and acetone.

Mossmorran

The Mossmorran Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant is part of the northern North Sea Brent oil and gas field system and is located on the outskirts of Cowdenbeath, Scotland. The Mossmorran facilities comprise two plants: the Fife NGL Plant operated by Shell and the Fife Ethylene Plant operated by ExxonMobil. An associated sea-going tanker loading facility is located at Braefoot Bay, 4 miles to the south.

Commodity chemicals are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale to satisfy global markets. The average prices of commodity chemicals are regularly published in the chemical trade magazines and web sites such as Chemical Week and ICIS. There have been several studies of the scale and complexity of this market for example in the USA.

Pyrolysis gasoline or Pygas is a naphtha-range product with high aromatics content. It is a by-product of high temperature naphtha cracking during ethylene and propylene production. Also, it is a high octane number mixture that contains aromatics, olefins, and paraffins ranging from C5s to C12s. The mixture has a CAS Number: 68477-58-7. PyGas has high potential for use as a gasoline blending mixture and/or as a source of aromatics. Currently, PyGas is generally used as a gasoline blending mixture due to its high octane number. Depending on the feedstock used to produce the olefins, steam cracking can produce a benzene-rich liquid by-product called pyrolysis gasoline. Pyrolysis gasoline can be blended with other hydrocarbons as a gasoline additive, or distilled to separate it into its components, including benzene.

Transalkylation is a chemical reaction involving the transfer of an alkyl group from one organic compound to another. The reaction is used for the transfer of methyl and ethyl groups between benzene rings. This is of particular value in the petrochemical industry to manufacture p-xylene, styrene, and other aromatic compounds. Motivation for using transalkylation reactions is based on a difference in production and demand for benzene, toluene, and xylenes. Transalkylation can convert toluene, which is overproduced, into benzene and xylene, which are under-produced. Zeolites are often used as catalysts in transalkylation reactions.

BTX (chemistry)

In the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, the initialism BTX refers to mixtures of benzene, toluene, and the three xylene isomers, all of which are aromatic hydrocarbons. The xylene isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho –, meta –, and para – as indicated in the adjacent diagram. If ethylbenzene is included, the mixture is sometimes referred to as BTEX.

Williams Olefins Plant explosion

The Williams Olefins Plant explosion occurred on June 13, 2013 at a petrochemical plant located in Geismar, an unincorporated and largely industrial area 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Two workers were killed and 114 injured. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) launched investigations to determine how and why the heat exchanger failed. The Chemical Safety Board concluded that a standby heat exchanger had filled with hydrocarbon. This heat exchanger was isolated from its pressure relief; shortly after the heat exchanger was heated with hot water, the hydrocarbon flashed to vapor, ruptured the heat exchanger, and exploded.

Steam cracking Petrochemical process to break down saturated hydrocarbons in smaller molecules

Steam cracking is a petrochemical process in which saturated hydrocarbons are broken down into smaller, often unsaturated, hydrocarbons. It is the principal industrial method for producing the lighter alkenes, including ethene and propene. Steam cracker units are facilities in which a feedstock such as naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethane, propane or butane is thermally cracked through the use of steam in steam cracking furnaces to produce lighter hydrocarbons. The propane dehydrogenation process may be accomplished through different commercial technologies. The main differences between each of them concerns the catalyst employed, design of the reactor and strategies to achieve higher conversion rates.

References

  1. ↑ "Huntsman Chemical Corporation Australia" . Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  2. ↑ "Huntsman Chemical Company Australia".
  3. ↑ "Pelligra buys famous ex-factory". 4 September 2018.

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