Isopropanolamine: Green Chemical Produces Alternative Products
June 13, 2022
Isopropanolamine and ethanolamine are alkanolamine homologues, but have better performance than ethanolamine, and less harmful to the environment and human body, gradually becoming a green chemical product that developed countries strongly promote and encourage the development of There has been a trend to replace ethanolamines. China's isopropanolamine industry started late, and there is a big gap with the developed countries. Under the huge potential business opportunities, it is imperative to break through many obstacles and accelerate the pace of development of the industry.
Accelerated application of alternatives With the increasing emphasis on environmental issues in countries around the world, the application of ethanolamine is gradually being curtailed. For example, the “pollution discharge and transfer registration system” in developed countries restricts the use of ethanolamine as a hazardous substance.
In the field of petroleum and natural gas refining desulfurization, the use of diisopropanolamine instead of monoethanolamine for the desulfurization of petroleum and natural gas refining can improve the degradation and degradation of solvents, and can effectively remove sulfur oxides. In the oil refining industry in the Middle East and other regions, the desulfurizer used by 80% of the companies is diisopropanolamine. As the world's demand for oil is increasing, and the energy crisis has led to an increase in the proportion of heavy sulfur oils in oil products, the market demand for isopropanolamine will continue to increase.
In the field of cement admixtures, the alcohol amines used as cement admixtures in the early stage were mainly triethanolamine. Since the dispersion and late strength of triisopropanolamine were better than those of triethanolamine, with the development of the cement industry and the intensification of competition. The application of triisopropanolamine in cement admixtures has developed rapidly. At home and abroad, the dominant position of triethanolamine in the field of cement admixtures has gradually been replaced by triisopropanolamine, and globally larger cement manufacturers such as Lafarge have started mass production of triisopropanolamine as a cement admixture.
In addition, isopropanolamine has been used as a auxiliant for biodiesel and alpha (ethylene) glycol with its hydrophilicity and lipophilicity, which can effectively increase the amount of alpha (ethyl) alcohol added and reduce the production cost. With the liberalization of the country’s policy on A(ethane)ol gasoline, it will bring tremendous opportunities for the development of the isopropanolamine industry.
In the dual role of rising oil prices and increasing demand for ethylene products, the price of ethanolamine continued to rise. The gap between the price of isopropanolamine and ethanolamine was greatly reduced, and ethanolamine gradually lost its price advantage, thus accelerating the substitution of ethanolamine.
According to statistics, the demand for isopropanolamine in the international market has gradually increased. As of 2006, the world's demand for isopropanolamine has reached 234,000 tons. It is expected that the demand for isopropanolamine in the international market will increase to about 250,000 tons in the next 2 to 3 years, and will increase to 500,000 tons in 5 to 8 years. about.
The late start of production was limited. Isopropanolamine began industrial production in the 1980s, with production and consumption mainly concentrated in Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, isopropanolamine has an extremely wide range of applications in developed countries.
Isopropanolamine is classified into isopropanolamine, diisopropanolamine, and triisopropanolamine based on the number of hydroxyl groups. The domestic isopropanolamine started relatively late, because most manufacturers cannot overcome the technical bottleneck and it is difficult to achieve economic size and have to suspend production. Domestic production is very limited. At present, only a few companies such as Nanjing Hongbaoli Co., Ltd. and Fushun Jiahua Polyurethane Co., Ltd. are producing in China. The output of most companies is relatively low, and only one isopropanolamine product can be produced. Nanjing Hongbaoli Co., Ltd. can produce a full range of isopropanolamine products. After the company's annual output of 20,000 tons of isopropanolamine project was completed and put into operation in early 2006, it produced 8,037 tons of isopropanolamine products of various types and achieved sales. 7279 tons.
The production technology of isopropanolamine according to the reaction mechanism can be divided into intermittent low-pressure low-concentration ammonia method, continuous high-pressure high-concentration ammonia method, continuous high-pressure supercritical synthesis method. Foreign companies basically rely on continuous high-pressure and high-concentration ammonia methods. Domestic companies mostly use intermittent low-pressure and low-concentration ammonia methods. Nanjing Hongbaoli Company adopts continuous high-pressure supercritical synthesis.
Many obstacles need to be broken Although isopropanolamine has broad prospects for development, industry experts also pointed out that the development of isopropanolamine in China still faces many obstacles: First, the current production technology of isopropanolamine is mostly controlled by multinational companies. In the hands of domestic production companies, they started late. Most companies cannot solve the problem of high-quality isopropanolamine production technology for a long time, as well as high energy consumption in production and excessive by-products, which are difficult to use. Domestic high-quality isopropanolamines Products have to rely on imports. Second, China lacks a large number of professional and technical personnel trained through long-term production practices. Most domestic isopropanolamine production enterprises have basically stopped production due to their inability to overcome technological bottlenecks. The shortage of professionals with extensive engineering experience has become the future of domestic isopropyl alcohol. Obstacles to the establishment of new amine companies. Thirdly, the domestic demand for isopropanolamine has just started. Only Nanjing Red Polaroid Co., Ltd. is the only company with a size of 10,000 tons. The domestic market is still in the stage of market introduction. Large-scale demand still requires a period of development and verification. Fourth, propylene oxide accounts for approximately 80% of the unit cost of isopropanolamine. With rising oil prices and tight supply of propylene oxide, the price rises also affect the production cost of isopropanolamine.
