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Spring House, PA, and Iselin, NJ -- Rohm and Haas Company
(NYSE:ROH), with support from Engelhard Corporation (NYSE:EC), has been
awarded a $5.2 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Industrial Technologies Program to develop a major new manufacturing process
that will use propane instead of propylene to manufacture acrylic acid.
The novel technology, if adopted worldwide by acrylic acid and other propylene
derivative manufacturers, could save up to 37 trillion BTUs per year,
eliminate 15 million pounds of environmental pollutants annually, and
potentially save U.S. industry nearly $1.8 billion by the year 2020.
Acrylic acid and its derivatives are used to create a wide
range of polymer-based consumer and industrial products, such as adhesives,
paints, polishes, protective coatings, and sealants, to name a few.
Rohm and Haas will complement its expertise in oxidation
catalyst research with Engelhard's innovative approach in the development
and application of monolithic catalysts used to control emissions. The
two companies will optimize catalyst formulations and develop technology
for depositing them onto heat exchangers and other monolithic structures.
Technical and commercial success-the ability to cost effectively manufacture
acrylic acid directly from propane-depends largely on uncovering the appropriate
catalyst system.
Together, the companies will spend the next five years screening and testing
thousands of unique catalysts. The University of Delaware, a partner in
the project, will provide computational modeling capabilities.
Rising crude oil prices have driven up the cost of propylene
to record levels in 2004. The switch to propane (typically half the cost
of propylene) will yield significant savings in manufacturing costs.
"Acrylic acid is one of the fastest growing commodity
chemicals, with worldwide demand increasing at about four percent per
year," said Gerard E. Tarzia, Rohm and Haas vice president and business
unit director, Monomers. "Fueled by its use in everything from water-based
paints and sealants to super-absorbent polymers and detergent additives,
a new world-scale acrylic acid plant must be built every year, on average,
to keep up with demand. And with worldwide demand for acrylic acid at
about 7.5 billion pounds, the cost savings alone by using a significantly
less expensive key raw material would revolutionize the industry."
Not only would the project lead to efficiency improvements,
but it would deliver significant energy savings as well. According to
Steve Freimer, director of Rohm and Haas Monomer Technology, current technology
to produce 140 billion pounds per year of propylene from naphtha and Liquefied
Petroleum Gas relies on capital-intensive steam crackers and related high
energy technology. "Today, we have to take that propylene and perform
additional steps to convert it to acrylic acid and other derivatives.
Propane, on the other hand, is a raw component of natural gas, and needs
only to be separated out-a process that will eliminate costly, energy-dependent
separation steps."
From an environmental standpoint, steam crackers and their
furnaces require high energy consumption and generate carbon dioxide (COx),
nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SOx) as by-products By replacing
crackers with comparatively small Short Contact Time Reactors, the new
technology, if deployed across the propylene value chain, could reduce
two million pounds of COx, nine million pounds of NOx and four million
pounds of SOx emissions.
"This effort represents a wonderful collaboration
of scientific, technological and commercial competencies directed to a
substantive challenge that has the potential for significant process productivity
and energy efficiency outcomes," said Dr. Edward T. Wolynic, Engelhard's
chief technology officer and group vice president, Strategic Technologies.
"We're pleased to bring our surface and materials science capabilities
to support Rohm and Haas in this endeavor."
Rohm and Haas, the world's largest producer of acrylic
monomer, has been working on a new propane-to-acrylic acid technology
for the last several years. "We have made good progress despite a
lot of technical hurdles," Freimer said. "With our partners
at DOE, Engelhard and the University of Delaware, we have a great team
in place to accelerate our pace and our chances of success."
About Rohm and Haas Company
Rohm and Haas is a worldwide producer of specialty materials,
with more than 100 plants and research facilities in 27 countries and
company sales of approximately $7 billion in 2004. Its chemistry is found
today in personal care, health care, grocery, home and construction markets,
in the power and electronics industry and thousands of everyday products.
About Engelhard Corporation
Engelhard is a surface and materials science company that
develops technologies to improve customers' products and processes. A
Fortune 500 company, Engelhard is a world-leading provider of technologies
for environmental, process, appearance and performance applications.
Source: Rohm and Haas; Engelhard
Corporation
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