Evonik Anticipates New Process to Boost Growth of Hydrogen Peroxide Market
Successful Commissioning of First Ever HPPO Plant under License from Evonik and Uhde at SKC, Korea
The Korean company SKC of Seoul has started up in Ulsan the world's first ever commercial-scale plant for production of propylene oxide by the innovative HPPO process, according to Evonik Industries. The plant has an annual capacity of 100,000 metric tons. Evonik Industries and Uhde, who jointly developed the HPPO process, have licensed it to SKC. Using a catalyst developed by Evonik, the process produces propylene oxide from propylene and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The joint venture Evonik Headwaters supplies the H2O2 in Ulsan directly "over the fence" to the HPPO plant.
The commissioning brings Evonik a big step closer to its strategic goal of providing hydrogen peroxide in large quantities for chemical processes such as the HPPO process. Dr. Klaus Engel, member of the Executive Board of Evonik responsible for the Chemicals Business Area, says: "By targeted development of new technologies in collaboration with proven and expert partners, we're opening up an attractive new market for hydrogen peroxide." He expects this first commercial-scale application of hydrogen peroxide in the chemical synthesis of propylene oxide to result in annual growth of the H2O2 market by 200,000 metric tons over the next ten years. Engel and Helmut Knauthe, Member of the Executive Board of Uhde, are agreed that the production facility in Korea is now a reference point for the construction of further plants using the HPPO process. With an annual capacity exceeding 600,000 metric tons, Evonik is the world's second largest producer of hydrogen peroxide, which has so far been used mainly in paper and pulp bleaching. The annual worldwide requirement for these classical applications exceeds three million metric tons.
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