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6 - Sustainability Assessments of Hydrogen Peroxide-Based and Tertiary Butyl Hydroperoxide-Based Propylene Oxide Technologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2022

Bala Subramaniam
Bala Subramaniam
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Summary

Propylene oxide (PO), a commodity chemical used for making antifreeze and plastics, has long been manufactured using technologies that make co-products that influence process economics and environmental footprint. In contrast, the hydrogen peroxide propylene oxide (HPPO) process (commercialized by Dow-BASF) uses titanium silicate as a catalyst and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidant to selectively produce PO without a co-product. Another alternate process (CEBC-PO) uses a homogeneous methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) catalyst and H2O2 to exclusively produce PO. This chapter compares the economics and environmental footprint of three technologies for making PO: HPPO, CEBC-PO and LyondelBasell that makes tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) as a co-product. While the HPPO and CEBC-PO processes are profitable, the profitability of the LyondellBasell process depends on the demand and value for TBA. Cradle-to-gate LCA reveals that the environmental impacts of all three processes are similar, with most of the adverse impacts caused by using fossil-based sources (natural gas and transportation fuel) for producing the raw materials (isobutane, propylene and hydrogen peroxide).

Keywords

propylene oxidehydrogen peroxideheterogeneous catalysthomogeneous catalystcradle-to-gate LCA
Type
Chapter
Information
Green Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
An Integrated Approach with Industrial Case Studies
 , pp. 123 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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