Close cooperation with universities

Standing still will set you back

As far as C₄-olefins and derivatives are concerned:

we intend to take full advantage of technical C₄ fractions that go into high-quality products or initial product stages.

The results speak for themselves:

• Development of processes for the hydrogenation of residual butadiene in crude C₄ (SHP process).
• Development of processes for the selective direct hydrogenation of butadiene to 1-butene and 2-butene in crude, crack C₄ streams (SHP CB process).
  • Main advantage: processing crack C₄ into raffinate I without eliminating butadiene.
• Development of an in-house process with multiple licenses for manufacturing MTBE from raffinate I.
  • Main advantage: the resulting raffinate II is completely free of butadiene and as such particularly suited to further processing.
• Manufacture of high-purity MTBE (DRIVERON S).
• Processes for the alternative use of the isobutene contained in raffinate I: manufacture of TBA (tertiary butanol).
• Processes for the manufacture of high-purity 1-butene, used in the polymer sector.
• Processes for the manufacture of high-purity isobutane as a propellant for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
• Octol process for the oligomerization of 2-butene in raffinate III or of 1-butene/2-butene in raffinate II. The resulting dibutene is the feedstock for isononanol. Through constant refinements, this excellent oligomerization process delivers a particularly linear product with an iso-index of 1,1.
  • Additional advantage: by using a fixed-bed catalyst, neither waste-water nor hazardous byproducts are produced.
• The complete utilization of C₄ cuts ends its cycle with the processing of residual butane into ultra-pure butane.

Objectives for oxo alcohols

Cost leadership for the plasticizer alcohol isononanol and the surfactant alcohol tridecanol; development of innovative processes.

Evonik Oxeno is the largest producer of isononanol worldwide. To manufacture isononanol, the company uses its own process in which di-n-butene is hydroformylated using an unmodified cobalt catalyst in a "one-pot process" (where catalyst formation and hydroformylation occur simultaneously in the same reactor) in two reactors connected in series, with intermediate separation of olefins that have remained unreacted in the first reactor. The hydroformylation products are hydrogenated in the liquid phase to form isononanol.

Tridecanol is produced by single-step hydroformylation of tri-n-butene in the presence of a modified rhodium catalyst and subsequent hydrogenation of the hydroformylation product.

The plasticizer diisononyl phthalate is produced discontinuously using a homogeneously dissolved titanium catalyst, by reaction of phthalic anhydride with isononanol.

These processes are continuously being improved by effecting greater economies in raw materials and energy.

The development of new and innovative processes in this area is now a further objective. In our efforts to achieve this, we rely not only on our strengths in process development, but we are also working closely with universities on the underlying fundamental principles.