Maleic Anhydride - Technology Benefits

INEOS possesses more than 40 years of experience as an operator and licensor of fluid-bed technology in the chemical industry. INEOS (through its predecessor companies BP and Amoco) has drawn on this deep experience to develop an industry-leading process for producing maleic anhydride from n-butane feedstock in a fluid-bed reactor system. Maleic anhydride may be produced through either a fixed-bed or fluid-bed reactor system.

INEOS has focused on the development of a fluid-bed process due to the primary attributes of the INEOS process technology.

These attributes include:

• Proven, safe design that provides for long-term, high, stable reactor performance.
• Lower air requirements as compared with fixed-bed technology, which allows for lower capital investment cost and ongoing energy requirements for new build plants.
• The INEOS design takes advantage of the exothermic MAN reaction to produce high pressure steam in sufficient quantities to satisfy steam needs for the MAN plant, with excess steam available for export.
• Lower maintenance costs and higher reliability (greater than 99% on-stream time) as compared to fixed-bed processes.
• Ability to scale to higher production capacities with a single reactor system (greater than 80 ktpa).

The advantages of INEOS’ fluid-bed MAN technology will translate into a process offering the lowest overall operating cost, higher reliability, and premium product purity.