25 March 2014
Details
Atol™ is the result of a partnership between
* Total,
* IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and
* its affiliate Axens that started in 2011.
Within this cooperation,
* Total developed a high performance catalyst formulation
at its research Center in Feluy, Belgium,
* IFPEN scaled up catalyst performance
within a heat recovery innovative process while
* Axens industrialized the catalyst formulation and
finalized the process scheme
with particular focus on energy-efficiency.
Total and IFPEN
are the co-owners of the technology and
Axens
is now in charge of commercializing Atol™
by providing all process licensing related services and
catalyst manufacturing.
Atol™ is believed to be
the most advanced dehydration technology and
features the highest profitability as a result of:
- Lower Capex
by simplified product purification brought on
by the outstanding performances of the ATO 201 catalyst
which exhibits a high activity and selectivity towards ethylene - The robustness of its catalyst
which copes with any variation in feedstock quality - The highly integrated process scheme
which greatly reduces operating costs - Significant potential to be integrated with
both upstream ethanol production and
downstream ethylene conversion
Atol™ is the first of a series of technologies,
for the production of other olefinic monomers by processing
bio-derived higher alcohols, to be developed
in parallel based on Atol’s technology platform.
Atol™ is a technology for the most profitable production of
polymer grade bio-ethylene
by dehydration of 1G and 2G renewable ethanol.
The bio-ethylene produced can be integrated
in existing downstream polymerization installations such as
* polyethylene (PE),
* polystyrene (PS),
* polyethyleneteraphthalate (PET),
* polyvinylchloride (PVC) and
* acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
without need for modifications.
Atol™ relies on Axens’ high performance catalyst (ATO 201) and
on an innovative process providing the following main features:
• Robustness to feedstock qualities:
Atol™ has the flexibility to handle
with different quality of ethanol
from 1st and/or 2nd generation
coming from several sources even highly diluted.
• High catalyst activity:
significantly less catalyst required as
compared to conventional catalyst,
resulting in the reduction of reactor volume and catalytic cost.
• In-Situ Regenerable catalyst ensuring long catalyst life time
and handling with feedstocks quality fluctuation
• Optimized reaction section for maximum heat recovery.
• Simplified ethylene purification section
due to high catalyst selectivity
• Robust and reliable process scheme with only fully proven solution.
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