Introduction to Petrochemicals
Unit I
Petrochemicals
• Petrochemicals are compounds or elements derived
from petroleum or natural gas (NG)
• They have the same chemical composition, structure
and properties of the same compounds derived
from non-petroleum sources.
• Ex: Methanol
- Can be petrochemical when formed from syngas
which is derived from petroleum or natural gas
- Can be chemical when formed by destructive
distillation of wood
• Thus petrochemical is not a class of compounds. It
refers to the origin of the compound.
Petrochemical Industry
• Petrochemical industry takes the feed stock from
petroleum refineries or NG processing units and
convert them into value added intermediates or
end products called petrochemicals.
• Petrochemicals touch everyday of our life.
• Application in industries such as textiles,
automobiles, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, dyes,
pesticides, cosmetics, paint, electronic devices,
construction, and appliances.
• The global petrochemicals market size was valued
at USD 539.3 billion in 2018.
• Expected to register a CAGR of 8.5%
Structure of Petrochemical Industry
Primary (Or) First Generation Petrochemicals
Historical Perspective of Petrochemical Industry
• Birth and Growth of much of the petrochemical industries
took place in 20th century starting from US.
• Second half of the 20th century has seen the growth of
petrochemical industry in Western Europe and Japan
• Later part of 20th century witnessed the growth of
petrochemical industry in China and India.
• Much of the growth was during and after World war-II
• Increased demand for high octane aviation gasoline during
the World War – II spurted the growth of petroleum
refineries.
• At the same time the demand for synthetic rubber also
increased, resulted in the increased demand of styrene
which in turn the demand for benzene and ethylene, thus
spurted the growth of petrochemical industries
Historical Perspective of Petrochemical Industry …
• Demand for polymers, explosives, fibers, rubber,
pesticides, dyes, paints etc. also increases.
• Initial industrial sources to produce organic chemicals
namely coal, wood, natural rubber, cotton, jute, oils,
fats and other plant and animal sources were limited,
also laborious and cumbersome to process.
• At the same time increased availability and
convenience in large scale handling of petroleum and
natural gas have replaced the above mentioned sources
• Today 95% of the organic chemicals are based on the
petrochemicals.
• Roughly 7-10% of petroleum processed in petroleum
refineries is utilized as feed stock for petrochemical
industries.
Important Milestones in Petrochemicals
Event Year
• Ethanol from ethylene by • 1828
Michael Faraday
• Elastics resistant to heat • 1839
and cold by Goodyear
• Isopropanol from • 1863
Propylene by Berthlot
• Ammonia synthesis
developed by Haber • 1904
• First synthetic plastic
Bakelite by Leo Hendrik • 1907
Baekeland
• BASF started the first • 1913
plant for synthesizing
ammonia by Haber-Bosch
Process
Important Milestones in Petrochemicals
Event Year
• Hoechst A.G starts producing vinyl 1913
chloride
• Condensite Co. builds the first 1914
synthetic Phenol plant
• Dow builds the styrene plant in US 1915
• ER&E produces the first
commercial petrochemical,
isopropyl alcohol from refinery 1921
gases.
• BASF develops first large scale 1922
process for urea
• First commercial process for 1924
methanol by BASF
Important Milestones in Petrochemicals
Event Year
• First Poly styrene plant by Naugatuck 1925
Chemical Co.
• Acetic anhydride and cellulose acetate for 1925
photographic film
• Steam cracking of butane to ethylene , 1927
propylene and butenes
• Acetone by Union carbide 1929
• First vinyl chloride from cracking ethylene 1929
dichloride
• Polyethene by Imperial Chemical Industries 1933
(ICI)
• Methyl amines by dehydration of ammonia 1934
and methanol
• Teflon by Dupont 1938
Important Milestones in Petrochemicals
Event Year
• Cumene (Isopropyl Benzene ) plant 1942
started by Shell
• Commercial production of Butadiene 1943
• Burnawerke Huels started the 1944
production of Buna-s synthetic rubber.
• UOP commercialised the process to
make Linear Alkyl Benzene, building
block of detergents. 1947
• Naphthachimie started Ethylene oxide
and Ethylene Glycol plant using 1952
Scientific Design Co. Inc’s new process.
• Hoechst built the first polyolefin
(structural plastics) plant using Ziegler 1955
technology
Important Milestones in Petrochemicals
Event Year
Amoco chemicals
commercialised the technology 1956
for oxidation of p-xylene to
terephthalic acid with break
through catalyst developed by
Scientific Design Co. Inc giving
high yields.
IFP, France commercializes the 1961
hydrogenation of benzene to
cyclohexane process.
Petrochemical Industries …
• Petrochemical Industries are highly technology driven
and capital intensive
• Efforts and resources are continuously invested for
technological and engineering developments of
petrochemical industries to reduce the cost of
production through:
Scaling up the plant’s size
Continuous catalyst upgradation to increase yield
Reducing energy consumption
Novel process routes
Adopting milder process conditions
Cheaper and safer raw materials
Important Developments in
Petrochemical Industries
Upgradation of steam cracking furnaces
Catalytic reforming process
Effective Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) gas
recovery system
Developments in separation processes like liquid-
liquid extraction, extractive distillation,
adsorption, absorption etc., due to the invention
of new adsorbents, solvents etc.
Ex: Linde Division of Union Carbide developed
synthetic zeolites as molecular sieve adsorbents
MOLSIV in 1949.
Important Developments in Petrochemical Industries …
Developments of important separation processes such as;
Udex Process – Separation of aromatics in reformate
Sorbex Processes:
Molex - Separation of normal paraffins from branched and
cyclic components
Parex – Separation of para-xylene from a mixed C8 aromatic
stream
Olex - Separation of olefins from paraffins
made possible,
Aromatics from Non-aromatics for BTX production
paraffins from kerosene stream for LAB
recovery of high purity p-xylene for PTA and PET fibers
production
Olefins from C4 and C5 streams
Top 10 countries in World Chemical sales
• Petrochemicals constitute 40% of world
chemicals market.
Petrochemicals
• Plastics and fertilizers are the two largest groups of
petrochemical sector.
• Plastics is the fastest-growing group of all the bulk
materials such as steel, aluminium or cement.
Petrochemicals …
• The United States, Europe, and other advanced economies
currently use up to 20 times as much plastic and up to 10 times as
much fertilizer as India, Indonesia, and other developing
economies on a per capita basis, underscoring the huge potential
for growth worldwide.
Some of the key players operating in the global petrochemicals market are;
BASF SE (Germany), SABIC (Saudi Arabia), LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V.
(The Netherlands), TOTAL (France), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (India), Chevron
Phillips Chemical Company (US), BP PLC (UK), Sumitomo Chemical Company
(Japan), Reliance Industries Limited (India), China National Petroleum Corporation
(China), DowDuPont (US), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (The Netherlands), and China
Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (China).
Global Petrochemicals Market, by Type, 2018
(USD Billion)
Ethylene accounted for the largest market share of 26%
Others mainly include Ammonia, C4 olefins.
Seven building blocks
• Ammonia (NH3) – 185 million tons/Year.
80% used for nitrogenous fertilizers ( More than half of
ammonia is converted to urea). Rest for nitric acid,
explosives, acrylonitrile etc.
• Methanol (CH3OH) – 100 million tons/Year
40% is converted to formaldehyde and rest into plastics,
plywood, paints, explosives and textiles. It is also used in
antifreeze, solvents, fuels for vehicles, and as an energy
carrier.
• Ethylene (C2H4) and propylene (C3H6) - collectively
referred to as light olefins – 255 million tons/Year.
Mostly converted to PE and PP. Also into glycols and
other derivatives.
Seven building blocks…
• Benzene (C6H6), toluene (C7H8) and mixed
xylenes (C8H10) – collectively referred to as BTX
aromatics – 110 million tons/Year
Processed into fiber intermediates, components in
transportation, surface coatings etc.
Consumption of plastic by
End-use sector Type of resin
Oil and Natural Gas demand in 2017 by sector
• Petrochemicals absorbs approximately 14% of oil and 8%
of natural gas.
• Petrochemicals and their derivatives will account for more
than a third of oil consumption in 2030 and nearly half of
oil consumption in 2050.
Petrochemicals …
• The petrochemicals produced today is also
been pursued from a variety of other feed
stocks such as biomass, coal, CO2, CBM, coke
oven gas, flue gases from industries.
• This could potentially lead to the “petro”
prefix becoming redundant.
Choice of Feed Stock
• Ammonia and methanol are produced from oil, natural gas, coal,
biomass, and water but the yield is the highest from natural gas.
• Olefins are produced from oil (Naphtha), NGL and Methanol (MTO)
• BTX is produced from Oil (Naphtha)
Choice of Feed Stock…
• Specific product Vs balanced portfolio of products.
• Availability and therefore cost of feedstocks which varies
substantially between regions.
• Feedstock costs can be between 15% and 85% of the
production costs of petrochemicals, depending on the choice
of feedstock.
• Crude oil has a similar price across the globe whereas, natural
gas prices can vary by a factor of 4.
• Feedstock advantage and domestic demand are key drivers
for growth.
• Competitive landscape shifted recently due to major
developments in North American shale gas and coal to
chemicals industry emergence in China.
• Future growth will be dominated by China and North
America, followed by Asia Less China (including India) and
Middle East.
Key message • Multiple feedstocks can be utilised to make the same product, but with
significant variations between the amount of input required.
Petrochemical Industry in India
• First Petrochemical plant of 20,000 tpa naphtha cracker was set
up by Union Carbide (India) Ltd. (UCIL) to produce ethylene in
1963 at Mumbai.
• Second naphtha cracker of 60,000 tpa was commissioned by
National Organic Chemicals Limited (NOCIL) in 1968 at Thane.
• Large scale first public sector integrated petrochemical complex
was set up by Indian Petrochemical Corp. Ltd. (IPCL) in 1970 at
Vadodara.
• Petrochemical industry gathered momentum in 1970s due to
three major developments.
• Firstly, on the supply side, the domestic production of
hydrocarbons increased substantially with the development of
petroleum refineries and discovery of natural gas in the country
and thus the feedstocks available for the production of
petrochemicals
Petrochemical Industry in India…
• Secondly on the demand side, robust consumption growth for
synthetic plastics, fabrics, rubber, detergents and a host of other
petrochemical products due to economic reforms initiated in 1991.
• Thirdly emphasis on import substitution for petrochemicals, the scale
of operation, public/private mix of investments and the nature of
competition.
• The Indian petrochemical industry is the fastest growing in the world
and the fastest growing industrial sectors in India today.
• Location Advantage - Future East West Connect
• India could establish close contacts with West Asia, Africa and Europe
from the western coast and Southeast and East Asia from the eastern
coast.
• India's proximity to middle east countries provide access to
petrochemical feedstocks at low cost.
Petrochemical Industry in India…
• Presently there are eleven naphtha, Gas and dual feed cracker complexes in
operation with combined ethylene, propylene and butadiene capacity of about
7.05, 5.1 and 0.5 MMTPA respectively.
Scenario of Indian Petrochemical Industry in 2018-19
Primary or First Generation Petrochemicals
(Building Blocks)
Product Installed Capacity Production Imports Exports
(Kilo Tons)
Ethylene 7377 6696 25 0
Propylene 5174 5187 0 0
Butadiene 550 495 2 143
Benzene 2375 1839 0 1264
Toluene 175 140 400 0
p-Xylene 5786 5377 800 1525
o-Xylene 420 345 10 105
Mixed 90 62 185 0
Xylenes
Methanol 631 200 1730 0
Petrochemical Industry in India…
• Six aromatic complexes in operation with a
combined p-xylene capacity of about 5.5 MMTPA.
• RIL’s p-Xylene capacity is about 11% of global
production and it is the world's second largest
producer.
Scenario of Indian Petrochemical Industry in 2018-19
Secondary or Second Generation Petrochemicals or
Intermediates
Product Installed Production Imports Exports
Capacity
(Kilo Tons)
Purified 7377 6686 188 415
Terephthalic Acid
Mono Ethylene 2215 2089 630 140
Glycol
Caprolactam 70 85 60 0
Vinyl Chloride 996 974 485 0
Phthalic Anhydride 349 290 130 0
Styrene 0 0 845 0
Acrylonitrile 41 0 165 0
Isopropanol 70 72 110 11
Scenario of Indian Petrochemical Industry in 2017-18
Third Generation Petrochemicals or End Products
Product Installed Production Imports Exports
Capacity
(Kilo Tons)
Synthetic Fibres/Yarn 4371 3625 260 1001
Polymers 10112 9276 4751 1188
Synthetic Rubber 425 308 608 52
Synthetic Detergent 687 743 206 1
Intermediates
Performance Plastics 2817 1719 583 1051
• Synthetic Fibres/Yarn: Polyester, Nylon, Polypropylene, Spandex
• Polymers: LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, PP, PVC, PS
• Synthetic Rubber: SBR, PBR, NBR,EVA,EPDM
• Synthetic Detergent Intermediates: LAB, Ethylene Oxide
• Performance Plastics: PET, SAN, ABS, Nylons, PMMA, Teflon
