Use of Propylene Splitter to Improve Polypropylene Business

To become more competitive and to diversify their raw material supplier base, polypropylene plants are constructing propylene/propane splitter units, in order to purify refinery grade propylene into polymer grade propylene. The economic analysis presented in this report is based upon the installation of a propylene purification unit inside a polypropylene plant located in US Gulf, China and Germany. For the first two regions, this was demonstraded to be an attractive opportunity. An analysis of the improvement being installed inside a refinery was also developed, making possible the sell of a more valuable product.

About the Publication Program

The Improvement Economics Program is a program that provides, by way of periodic reports, insightful and unbiased reviews on process improvement opportunities, from both a technical and economic perspective. Each report presents the following topics:

• opportunity description
• schematics, such as flow diagrams
• technical details, such as heat and material balances, key performance indicators
• environmental impact analysis
• capital and operating costs breakdown
• alternative solutions overview