Published December 2014
In China, ethylene and propylene have been traditionally produced from petroleum-based feedstocks via steam cracking and/or catalytic cracking process routes. Methanol-to-olefins (MTO) processes are attractive alternative routes to light olefins, and a few MTO process units have been put in commercial operations in China since late 2010, mainly because of availability of low cost methanol, enabling catalytic conversion and olefin product recovery process technologies.
In this report, technological progress and industrialization of methanol catalytic conversion to light olefins process technologies are analyzed. We also develop and present process designs and preliminary economics of the ethylene and propylene production by the two process technologies currently available for license—China’s DMTO-II and UOP Advanced MTO.
