New Technologies and Alternative Feedstocks in Petrochemistry and Refining

DGMK Conference October 9 11, 2013, Dresden, Germany

SINOPEC Methanol-To-Olefins (S-MTO) Technology Process

Liu Hongxing, Xie Zaiku, Zhao Guoliang
Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology, SINOPEC, China

Abstract
It is widely recognized that naphtha steam crackers and FCC units are the main current
sources of ethylene and propylene. On the condition of high oil price, olefin producers are
striving to develop new economical routes to produce ethylene and propylene with low-cost feed
stocks.

Methanol to olefins (MTO) has aroused great attention in recent years, SINOPEC has
developed a new kind of MTO process named S-MTO which has high olefins selectivity,
high methanol conversion and low catalyst consumption. Puyang Zhongyuan 20,0 KTA SMTO has been running stablely for more than 17 months. The catalyst used in the process
is based on a silicoaluminophosphate, SAPO-34, which has very high carbon selectivity to
low carbon olefins. Results from the commercial plant show that S-MTO process converts
methanol to ethylene and propylene at about 81% carbon selectivity. The carbon selectivity
approaches 92% if butenes are also accounted for as part of the product. Typically, the ratio
of propylene- ethylene can range from 0.6 to 1.3. When combined with OCCOlefin
Catalytic Crackingprocess to convert the heavier olefins, the overall yield of ethylene and
propylene increase to 85%~87% and propylene-ethylene ratios of more than 1.5 are
achievable. Other co-products include very small amounts of C1-C4 paraffins, hydrogen, CO
and CO2, as well as ppm levels of heavier oxygenates.
Because of the quick deactivation of MTO catalyst, a kind of high efficiency fast
fluidized bed reactor is adopted, the activity of deactivated catalyst is recovered by burning
the coke in the regenerator.