Renewable Energy in Industrial Applications – an ... - Unido

ANNEXES
ANNEX 3
The production of synthetic organic materials
from biomass feedstocks
Ethylene Production from Bioethanol
In June 2007, Braskem announced the successful
production of the first internationally certified
plastics made from sugarcane ethanol. One
month later, Dow entered into a joint venture
with Crystalsev, the leading Brazilian ethanol
producer, to produce bioplastics. Both companies
have moved quickly to achieve commercial
production. Braskem is now building a USD 300
million plant at its existing Triunfo complex with
the capacity to produce 200 000 tonnes of green
plastics a year. The plant came online in
September 2010, the first facility of its kind to
enter commercial operation (Biopol, 2010).
In parallel, Dow and Crystalsev are developing
the first facility to integrate a sugar cane
plantation with an ethanol mill and a plastics
manufacturing plant to produce bioplastics. This
facility will produce 350 000 tonnes of plastics a
year and is expected to start production in 2011,
becoming a key part of Dow's growth strategy in
Brazil. Although the integrated facility will take
longer to become operational than the Braskem
plant, it will allow Dow and Crystalsev to take
advantage of important synergies in the
production process, such as using the water that
results from the conversion of ethanol into
ethane and co-generating electricity using the by
products of the sugar cane production.
Braskem's second bioplastics plant, scheduled to
start production between 2012 and 2014, will
also be a totally integrated facility in order to
exploit production synergies.
i. Methanol to Olefins
Olefins (ethylene and propylene) can be
produced from methanol. Bio-methanol can be
produced from biomass.
The BioMCN process for bio-methanol production
uses feedstock from non-food sources such as
organic waste materials and non-food crops.
BioMCN, the world's first industrial scale biomethanol
producer, has received an investment
of EUR 36 million from the private equity firm
Waterland to go towards the continued
construction of its bio-methanol plant in Delfzijl,
Holland. BioMCN opened in June 2010 the largest
second generation biofuel plant in the world.
With a production capacity of 250 million litres,
BioMCN can immediately fulfill the entire Dutch
biofuel obligation - a minimum of 4% blended
into gasoline (BioMCN, 2010).
Bio-methanol is produced through an innovative
process, patented by BioMCN, and is made from
crude glycerin, a sustainable biomass which is a
residue from the industrial processing of
vegetable oils and animal fats.. The facility is
scheduled to expand again in future to
800 000 mt.
Two relatively new technologies have been
developed to produce olefins from methanol.
These processes could as readily use biomethanol
as fossil fuel-based methanol.
Lummus Technology and Shaanxi Xin Xing Coal
Chemical Science & Technology Development
have signed a cooperative marketing agreement
globally to license dimethyl ether/methanol-toolefin
(DMTO) technology. This breakthrough
technology not only enables the production of
olefins from methanol, but also produces
enhanced yields that will enable producers costeffectively
to expand existing capacity-restricted
olefins plants. The first application of this
technology will be at the Shenhua Baotou Coal
Chemicals plant in Baotou, China. The first
DMTO commercial unit in the world, with a
production capacity of 600 000 tonnes of lower
olefins from methanol per year, was proved to be
successful in its first commissioning operation.
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