Green tech­nolo­gies for the “Swiss army knife” of the industry

Whether used in mattresses or refrig­er­a­tors, the global polyurethane market is grow­ing. The MOL Group from Hungary is look­ing to enter this market and is rely­ing on the HPPO process from Evonik Active Oxygens and thyssenk­rupp Indus­trial Solu­tions to ensure the produc­tion process is gentle on resources. Compared to common manu­fac­tur­ing processes, the HPPO process has lower CO₂ emissions.

If you wake up and stretch in bed, go for a run and then grab milk from the fridge for your coffee and drive in to work, you will have already come into contact with polyurethane several times. This sought-after mate­r­ial can be used in a diverse range of appli­ca­tions – from day-to-day prod­ucts such as mattresses or sneaker soles to build­ing insu­la­tion, to coat­ings and paints all the way up to appli­ca­tions in furni­ture and vehi­cle construction. 

Polyurethane is a robust and durable mate­r­ial that contributes to the longevity of prod­ucts, thereby contribut­ing to saving resources. For example:

• When insu­lat­ing houses, polyurethane improves energy effi­ciency and reduces CO₂ emis­sions because less gas, oil and elec­tric­ity have to be used for heat­ing or cooling.
• As an insu­lat­ing mate­r­ial in refrig­er­a­tors, polyurethane reduces elec­tric­ity consump­tion. By cool­ing, food can be kept longer.
• Thanks to polyurethanes in car seats and bodies, lighter vehi­cles can be built, which reduces fuel consump­tion. They also provide comfort and safety by insu­lat­ing car occu­pants from road noise and heat and cush­ion­ing the impact in the event of an accident.

Increas­ing demand for energy-saving light­weight materials

It is there­fore no wonder that demand for this mate­r­ial has been increas­ing signif­i­cantly for years. “The global polyurethane market is grow­ing faster than the world econ­omy,” confirms Uwe Kuehner, Vice Pres­i­dent Strate­gic Projects at Evonik Active Oxygens. The reasons for growth are global mega­trends, such as grow­ing popu­la­tions and increas­ing mobil­ity, while simul­ta­ne­ously attempt­ing to increase the energy effi­ciency. The qual­ity of life in devel­op­ing coun­tries, partic­u­larly in Asia, is increas­ing, which is result­ing in greater demand for refrig­er­a­tors or air condi­tion­ing units with insu­lat­ing layers made from polyurethane foams. Corre­spond­ingly, the demand for polyurethane foams (PU foams) in high-qual­ity furni­ture, car seats or partic­u­larly durable cold-foam mattresses is growing.

As a result, manu­fac­tur­ers around the world are expand­ing their produc­tion capac­i­ties for polyurethane, as well as for its precur­sors, propy­lene oxide and poly­ols: “Poly­ols are some of the most sought-after petro­chem­i­cal prod­ucts today, as they are the start­ing mate­ri­als for polyurethane, the ‘Swiss army knife’ of the indus­try,” says György Szűcs, Group Invest­ment and Down­stream Strate­gic Projects Direc­tor at the Hungar­ian oil, gas, petro­chem­i­cal and retail corpo­ra­tion MOL Group. Accord­ing to their own calcu­la­tions, the MOL Group is predict­ing global demand for poly­ols will grow by 3.4 percent annu­ally to 2025.

Polyol plant in Hungary will begin oper­a­tions in 2022

This global demand has resulted in the MOL Group making the largest single organic invest­ment in its history: the inde­pen­dent inter­na­tional oil, gas, petro­chem­i­cal and retail company is invest­ing 1.3 billion euros in the construc­tion of a new polyol complex in Tisza­újváros in north­ern Hungary. “The plant will use the most advanced, safest and envi­ron­men­tally friendly tech­nol­ogy currently avail­able in order to manu­fac­ture this diverse mate­r­ial,” says Szűcs from MOL. “This is one of our major steps on the way to deliver on MOL’s ‘Shape Tomor­row 2030+’ Strat­egy that aims to diver­sify away from fossil fuels and there­fore to main­tain more sustain­able operations.”

MOL commis­sioned thyssenk­rupp Indus­trial Solu­tions (tkIS), a company special­iz­ing in the design, construc­tion and service of indus­trial plants and systems, with the construc­tion of the large Polyol Complex in Tisza­újváros. Polyol tech­nol­ogy is provided by tklS and the plant modules in the complex were manu­fac­tured in Thai­land trans­ported to Hungary by ship and then put together at the site, just like a huge LEGO set. The complex, which has been built on MOL Petro­chem­i­cals site, is intended to begin oper­a­tions in 2022 and convert 200,000 tons of propy­lene oxide into poly­ols and propy­lene glycols each year.

Devel­op­ment of new polyol grades

In addi­tion, MOL opened a new research and devel­op­ment centre for poly­ols in Százhalom­batta, about 200 kilo­me­tres away from Tisza­újváros. The centre will conduct tests of the physic­o­chem­i­cal prop­er­ties of poly­ols, as well as labo­ra­tory tests and appli­ca­tion trials of polyurethane foams made from them. By July 2022, at least 10 polyol grades will be devel­oped in the newly built facility.

The company also plans to coop­er­ate with the labo­ra­to­ries of several Hungar­ian univer­si­ties and inde­pen­dent research insti­tu­tions. These collab­o­ra­tions should help to further develop the method­olo­gies used in the polyol R&D centre and expand the univer­si­ties’ knowl­edge base.

The HPPO process: effi­cient and sustainable

A signif­i­cant part of the produc­tion process at MOL is the “Hydro­gen Perox­ide to Propy­lene Oxide (HPPO)” process, devel­oped together by Evonik Active Oxygens and thyssenk­rupp Indus­trial Solu­tions. The process uses hydro­gen perox­ide (H₂O₂) with a specific qual­ity level to oxidize propene to PO, at a compa­ra­bly low steam and elec­tric­ity demand. The main reac­tion prod­ucts are propy­lene oxide and water that can be biolog­i­cally purified.

A cata­lyst devel­oped by Evonik for the HPPO process is at the core of this method. The cata­lyst ensures that propene is converted to propy­lene oxide at high conver­sion and selec­tiv­ity – and there are no other appre­cia­ble by-prod­ucts. This helps HPPO stand out compared to tradi­tional produc­tion processes for propy­lene oxide where large amounts of co-prod­ucts and by-prod­ucts are gener­ated and which must be sold and disposed of at consid­er­able cost. “Further­more, the invest­ment costs and energy use for tradi­tional produc­tion processes are also rather high,” says Kuehner.

Bene­fits of HPPO technology:

• No co-prod­uct to be sold
• Specially devel­oped, highly selec­tive cata­lyst from Evonik
• Lower invest­ment costs
• Effi­cient use of raw materials

Contrast­ingly, the HPPO proce­dure only requires an upstream plant to manu­fac­ture hydro­gen perox­ide. “The most effi­cient process to manu­fac­ture propy­lene oxide from propene and H₂O₂ is our HPPO process,” the expert summa­rizes. “We are convinced of this and also have the data to back it up.“ At the end of 2020, Evonik AO performed life cycle assess­ments (LCA) in which they quan­ti­fied the carbon foot­print for vari­ous prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies. The analy­ses are based on accepted assess­ment approaches for CO₂-equiv­a­lent emis­sions at differ­ent prod­uct manu­fac­tur­ing phases (“cradle-to-gate” assess­ment). These analy­ses show that the HPPO process can save more than ten percent of CO₂ emis­sions compared to alter­na­tive PO manu­fac­tur­ing processes, depend­ing on the location.

Making the manu­fac­tur­ing process more sustainable

Evonik AO is increas­ingly taking the origin of the raw mate­ri­als into account in order to make the entire manu­fac­tur­ing process more sustain­able. After all: “The smaller the ‘CO₂ back­pack’ of these mate­ri­als, the lower the total CO₂ baggage of the propy­lene oxide,” says Kuehner.

However, the possi­bil­i­ties of reduc­ing CO₂ emis­sions are by no means exhausted. “There are numer­ous efforts to estab­lish other processes to derive propene from sustain­able sources, such as bio-based raw mate­ri­als or on the basis of used cook­ing fat or agri­cul­tural waste,” explains the expert. Evonik AO has already converted its plants vari­ous regions to run on green elec­tric­ity that is used as effi­ciently as possi­ble. Further poten­tial can also be derived from the use of green hydrogen.

Accord­ing to Jürgen Schemel, Head of Tech­nol­ogy, Inno­va­tion & Sustain­abil­ity at Petro­chem­i­cals and Poly­mers at tkIS, as the second HPPO licen­sor, is also focus­ing on further reduc­ing the HPPO energy foot­print, by “opti­miz­ing raw mate­r­ial consump­tion and devel­op­ing tailor-made inte­grated plant concepts in a holis­tic approach.” Recy­cled plas­tics, he says, is one of tkIS’s initia­tives on a broader scale, not just focus­ing on HPPO and downstreams.

On the path to a green value creation chain

All three, Evonik, tkIS and MOL in Hungary view inno­va­tion and sustain­abil­ity as the core topics for the future. Evonik Active Oxygens’ LCA analy­sis shows that the cutting-edge refin­ery complexes that belong to the company – and from which the polyol plant procures propy­lene, hydro­gen and steam – have a compar­a­tively small carbon foot­print. Accord­ing to Kuehner, they “are fossil-fuel based, but are very, very efficient.”

With its polyol produc­tion capa­bil­i­ties, the company is not only creat­ing a prod­uct that saves energy but is also rely­ing on the HPPO process as the “most envi­ron­men­tally friendly tech­nol­ogy” that currently exists. “MOL will be the only company in Central and East­ern Europe with an inte­grated value chain that extends from crude oil extrac­tion to polyol produc­tion,” says György Szűcs, Group Invest­ment and Down­stream Strate­gic Projects Direc­tor. “The produc­tion process is envi­ron­men­tally friendly, also thanks to the sustain­able HPPO tech­nol­ogy from Evonik and thyssenk­rupp Indus­trial Solutions.”