Unipol Polypropylene Unit Undergoes Trial Run

The Dow Chemical Company and the China Datang Inner Mongolia Duolun Coal Chemical Company have carried out a trial run of the Unipol polypropylene (PP) gas phase technology unit in China. The trial run took place on 18 November, with the first production of Aim-grade polypropylene resin. Once fully operational, the plant will produce 460,000 tons of PP per year.

PP is a versatile plastic used in packaging, durable goods, automotive parts, non-wovens, fibres and consumer applications. Dave Jerger, senior improvement leader for Unipol PP licensing and catalyst, said: 'Since 2006, seven polypropylene plants in Asia have chosen Unipol PP technology. 'The simple and safe design, low investment and extremely economical production process of this technology make it an attractive solution for China PP producers,' he added.

Biodiesel Reactor Systems Are Ready To Run

BHR Group has completed development and installation of two intensified full size biodiesel reactor systems. Drawing on its chemical process design expertise in mixing systems, process intensification and scale up, BHR Group has completed development and installation of two intensified full size biodiesel reactor systems. Using its in-depth understanding of chemistry, chemical engineering, kinetics, mass transfer, mass and energy balances BHR Group has ensured these units consume some 70% less power than batch systems.

The subsidiary BHR Biofuels has successfully installed and demonstrated the process intensified reactors at a chemical plant producing biodiesel from waste and virgin oils. Both the esterifier and the transesterifier models were producing biodiesel (on specification) in-line with the EN14214 standards with all feed stocks. Dr Richard Jackson, BHR Biofuels Technical Director, explains: "The novel process intensification technology means that the Transesterifier reaction time is less than 1 minute to completion".

"In addition the continuous nature of these reactors means that capital and operating costs are kept to a minimum and as they have no moving parts within the reactor the maintenance costs are lower". "The overall objective of the project was to prove the technology at production scale which these site trials did very well, and because the system operates at steady state, the system was much less operator intensive than the original batch reactors, making work at the factory both quieter and safer".