[blurdude]

Hello everyone,
hope somebody can help me (finance background) understand the following chemical production units. I get these terms/names directly from oil & petrochemical consultant reports that specialize in the China market. So some of these terms may be uniquely Chinese or direct translation from the Chinese language. The consultants advised that these production units use Propane, n-Butane or I-Butane as feedstock. If anyone could help me understand (for each unit):

1) what the feedstock slate or composition is (e.g. 20% propane or 36% n-Butane, etc.)
2) whether they are usually located within a refinery complex or petrochemical complex or stand alone units
3) what chemical products do they produce


PRODUCTION UNIT NAMES (No misspellings here - literally taken off consultant reports)
a) Aromatization units
b) Isomerization units
c) Alkylation units
d) Sec-Butyl Acetate units
e) Methyl Ethyl Ketone units
f) Butadiene units
g) C4-Propylene units
h) Alkane Dehydrogenation units (ADH)
i) Autothermal Dehydrogenation units (another ADH??)
j) iso-Butane Dehydrogenation units


I have tried to speak with them on these terms but language is a BIG problem. They cannot clearly explain in English. So I am reaching out to the experts here for some help. Please be patient and thanks very much for allowing me to be part of this forum community.

Thank you!

Ian

[thelastone]

Good Morning Ian,

I'm not trying to discourage you, but there are people who study all their lives to adquire the information you asked here for: doesn't your company have a chemical consultant? If not I strongly recommend asking for one.
The reason being that there is an infinite conditions and reactions that could be carried out in one of these production units.

[Enthalpy]

The terms are just standard English jargon for refineries and chemistry - no influence of Chinese here.

I feel the answers you seek are too variable. Refineries are rather flexible and run with inconsistent feedstock, crude oil being an extreme example. As well, their output is not expected to be one single compound, but instead a huge mixture of compounds, where a set of broad properties must be met, like a boiling range, a density...

If you take just the alkylation unit as an illustration, it runs on a mix that contains i-butene but also i-butane and many more small compounds, and produces a huge mix of ramified alkanes which aren't even analyzed in details - they must mainly provide a high octane number. Books use to tell "i-propene plus i-propane become i-octane" but that's plain dishonest, both about the reaction mechanism and about the complexity of the mixtures.

[blurdude]

Thanks thelastone, Enthalpy.

I guess I wasn't too clear as it might have seem like I was asking for a complete and exact answer. I apologize for that. I understand that there are different variables and different outcomes even if we just take a single unit to test. But what I was asking for really is to understand, for each of the main chem product produced, how much of propane or butane is typically required as feedstock.

For example, a typical olefins steam cracker's purpose is to produce ethylene and propylene. It can be max'd ethylene or propylene but typically ethylene. Even then, there are other streams like butadiene that produced. I have learned that in such a case, I would expect a typical cracker to need approximately 2.4 units of propane feedstock for every 1 unit of ethylene. Likewise, approximately 2.6 units of butane feedstock for every 1 unit of ethylene produced. 3.5 units of Naphtha for every 1 unit of ethylene produced. So, although the cracker will be producing more than just ethylene, it is the main stream produced so using it as a marker or benchmark.

Alternatively, we could also look at it from the other angle: what would be a typical product yield for steam cracker IF it was run with propane feedstock. And then IF it was run with butane...so on.

Typical or general feedstock to product ratios will be more than good enough for me. I do not need specific details on exact yields and how these yields may change with different variables, conditions, etc.

I understand that maybe not one person can answer every part of my demanding question but i do hope to get some guidance overall.

Sorry if I am asking for too much. I just don't know if this is something possible so I have to try. If this post dies a quick death, I will understand that my request is not a realistic one.

Thanks for even replying and trying to help. I really appreciate it.