(114b) Next Generation Phenol Technology

The Next Generation Phenol technology offers phenol producers with growth prospects and/or producers pursuing vertical integration of their refining & petrochemical assets via phenol to bis-phenol A to polycarbonate production a lower OPEX, CAPEX, and smaller footprint processing option. Economic advantages include a reduction of $21 per ton of phenol in net cost of production (NCOP), and at least a $19M increase in net present value (NPV) relative to current state-of-the art process alternatives. This is achieved by: 1)  a reduction in utilities of 10% using novel phenol recovery fractionation technology that integrates the Cumene-AMS and Crude-Acetone columns, 2) an improved cumene oxidation/ CHP decomposition design that reduces waste water by one half and produces higher phenol yield and reduced CAPEX, and 3) offers a further improvement in feedstock efficiency when combined with the Q-Max cumene alkylation technology using a new QZ-2500H high selectivity alkylation catalyst.