Page 176 - CW E-Magazine (14-1-2025)

Special Report

Linear alpha olefi ns – a techno-commercial profi le

inear alpha olefi ns (LAOs) are fractionation; and internal olefins Single fraction approaches are
hydrocarbons with the chemi- formation and fractionation. based on targeting the comonomer
Lcal formula C H , characterized range alpha olefi ns (for the manu-
2n
n
by linear chains and one double bond Although the business is dominated facture of polyethylene), specifi cally
at the alpha position. In the industry, a by only a handful of players, there is an either butene-1, hexene-1, or octene-1.
majority of the high-quality alpha astounding variety of process techno- Axens’AlphaButol process, for exam-
olefi ns are made from high-purity logies employed commercially. These ple, is designed to selectively dimerize
ethylene.They are normally produced technology approaches can generally ethylene to butene-1. CP Chem’s‘
and sold as single carbon cut olefi n pro- be segmented into three ‘breeds’: 1-Hexene Select’ technology is, as the
ducts but are often blended to meet  Full range; name indicates, a catalyst technology
customer requirements.  Single fraction; and that produces just 1-hexene, selectively.
 Syngas based (Sasol). The process uses a proprietary chromium-
Technology options based catalyst system and converts, via
Globally, the largest volume of The ‘Full Range’ technology en- trimerization, ethylene gas to an ole-
LAO has been produced from ethylene ables production of all possible chain fi nic product containing about 99 wt%
oligomerisation, Fischer-Tropsch syn- lengths of LAO, which range from C4 1-hexene.
thesis followed by purifi cation and, to a to greater than C30, and the bulk of the
lesser extent, alcohols dehydration. LAO business is based on this techno- The Shell Higher Olefi n Process
logy. The big three practitioners of this (SHOP) is a process for the production
LAO production from ethylene approach are Shell, INEOS, and CP of LAOs via ethylene oligomerization
comprises three major sections: ethy- Chem. Other, smaller operators include and subsequent olefi n metathesis to
lene oligomerization; alpha-olefins SABIC and Idemitsu. produce internal olefi ns. The olefi ns are

Source: IHS Markit @2021 IHS Markit

Fig. 1: Technology options for LAOs(1).

176 Chemical Weekly January 14, 2025

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