CDTECH - Catalytic Distillation Technologies

Introduction

CDTECH^®

Catalytic Distillation Technologies (CDTECH), a partnership between Lummus Technology, a CB&I company, and Chemical Research and Licensing, is the leader in the development and commercialization of catalytic distillation based processes for the chemical, petrochemical and refining industries.

CATALYTIC DISTILLATION

Catalytic distillation is a unique system that combines two fundamental unit operations, namely reaction and distillation in a single piece of equipment. This concept fits into the broader area of "process intensification", which has the goals of making modern refining and chemical processes more compact and efficient. The system is technically superior to conventional fixed-bed reactor technology for many applications for the following reasons: By distilling and removing the products from the reactants in the reaction zone, catalytic distillation breaks the reaction equilibrium barrier; the combination of reaction and distillation steps (process intensification) reduces capital costs significantly; the integrated heat removal (exothermic heat of reaction absorbed by evaporating liquid) further simplifies the process, and overall utility requirements and operating expenses are reduced; continuous washing of the reaction zone with internal liquid traffic in the column results in extended catalyst life.

Ownership


CDTECH was formed in 1988 to research, develop, and market process technology for the refining and petrochemical industries. It is a 50/50 partnership between Chemical Research and Licensing Co. (owned by CRI International, a Shell subsidiary) and Lummus Technology, a CB&I company.

History

The achievements and successes of CDTECH began over two decades ago with the dream that the future of catalytic distillation would be greater than anyone realized. In 1977, an idea was hatched for producing di-isobutylene from isobutylene in a distillation column. A 2.5 cm diameter column, with acid resin catalyst, produced di-isobutylene from Raffinate-1. Chemical Research & Licensing (CR&L) was founded to commercialize the process.

CR&L first developed the catalytic distillation process to produce polygas from C₄ olefins. The market for additional polygas at the time did not materialize. There was, however, a need for MTBE. So CR&L, assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, built a 7.5 cm diameter pilot plant to develop the technology for MTBE. Charter Oil Co. in Houston licensed the first plant. The refinery is currently owned by Valero Energy, a customer who now has five CDTECH ether units. CDTECH has since licensed over 150 units all over the world based on the catalytic distillation concept for multiple process applications including etherification for ethers production, selective hydrogenation for olefins saturation and isomerization, benzene saturation, gasoline hydrodesulfurization, and alkylation for ethylbenzene and cumene production.

More about our history

Achievements

Among the achievements CDTECH can recognize:

A world leading position in the ethers licensing business, with over 100 licensed units of which 60 units are currently in operation and more are on the way. These units range in size from what is probably the world's smallest (500 BPD) to the world's largest (over 25,000 BPD).
The CDHydro^® hydrogenation process for hydrogenating aromatics, dienes, olefins and acetylenes. It reduces capital costs, enhances yields, and extends the catalyst life. In fact, at Valero's McKee, Texas refinery, the catalyst has operated since 1995 with the original catalyst charge with no loss of catalyst activity.
The CDHDS^® hydrodesulfurization process, which provides a low-cost route to cleaner burning gasoline with maximum octane retention. This process also had a very long catalyst cycle, being able to meet FCC unit requirements during a five-year cycle without catalyst regeneration or replacement.
Dimer₈^SM process, jointly licensed by CDTECH and Snamprogetti, offers an advanced process for the conversion of existing MTBE plants for the production of Iso-Octene/Iso-Octane.
CDTECH EB^® - for production of ethylbenzene using CDTECH catalytic distillation technology came on-stream in December 1994. CDTECH EB technology is flexible to use either polymer grade or dilute ethylene feedstocks. The technology has now being considered for six units throughout the world and most recently for one of the largest EB plants ever built with a single train capacity for Dow Chemical.
CDCumene^® - analagous to CDTECH EB, this process was brought on-stream in April 2000 at a capacity of 270,000 MTA by Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corporation, Taiwan. The unit has since being expanded to 540,000 MTA capacity with minimum investment cost. The expanded unit has been operating since March 2004.


CDTECH is unique in its ability to continuously introduce and commercialize new technologies as demonstrated in the chronology below:

	1981	First MTBE - Charter Oil Co., Houston (now Valero Energy) licenses the first CDMtbe^® Plant.

	1989	Qilu Petrochemical starts up the first Asian CDMtbe unit at Zibo, China.

	1990	Clean Air Act Amendment signed. Surge in MTBE/TAME demand for reformulated gasoline. State of the art R&D center opens. Pilot scale facilities of the R&D Center.

	1991	CDTECH reached 75 ether awards ranging in size from 500 to 17,500 BPD.

	1992	First TAME unit comes on-stream for Star Enterprise at Convent, Louisiana. First world scale MTBE unit commissioned at Alberta Envirofuels, Canada.

	1993	Eight ether units brought on-stream by Cosmo, Citgo, Idemitsu Kosan, Shell, Exxon, Tosco, and Valero (2).

	1994	First CDTECH EB plant for Mitsubishi Petrochemical at Yokkaichi, Japan. First CDHydro plant at Shell's petrochemical complex in Norco, Louisiana. Idemitsu Kosan utilized the first combination CDHydro/CDMtbe plant.

	1995	First corporate-wide hydrotreating agreement signed with Shell. First CDHydro depentanizer implemented at Diamond Shamrock's Sunray, Texas refinery. Texaco commercialized the first CDHydro benzene hydrogenation application at its Bakersfield, California refinery.

	1996	First CDEthers^® unit for co-production of MTBE and TAME is started up in El Palito, Venezuela by Corpoven (PDVSA).

	1997	CR&L acquired by CRI International. A new refluxed reactor version of catalytic distillation is introduced for Sasol in South Africa. Successful start-up of first in-house designed CDIB^® isobutylene process unit for Ciba in China.

	1998	The CDHDS hydrodesulfurization process technology introduced. Pemex, CDTECH's best repeat customer, selected CDTECH for eight MTBE and eight TAME units in 1998, bringing their total to 21 ether units. Catalytic distillation column new process schemes are developed in highly flexible facilities in Pasadena, Texas. Motiva's plant in Port Authur, Texas uses the CDHDS process to produce low sulfur gasoline.

	2000	First CDHDS unit for Motiva at Port Arthur, Texas

	2004	CDHydro/CDHDS is the technology of choice to process over 1.0 million barrels per day of gasoline for mercaptans and sulfur removal in refineries all over the world.

Company Vision

CDTECH will continue to lead the way in the technology revolution with new processes that change the way refineries and petrochemical plants meet their requirements. By inventing new technology choices from our base in catalytic distillation, we will bring increasing value to our customers.