Abstract
Synthomer is a world leading company in the market of adhesive and tackifiers’ resin and one of their key product brands is Regalite™. Regalite™ resins are waterwhite hydrogenated hydrocarbon resins with excellent thermal stability and wide range of polymer application. Those resins are being produced in Middelburg, The Netherlands by a cationic polymerization of a C9 feedstock and subsequently hydrogenation. The hydrogenation process is currently using a large amount of solvent in order to obtain good transport and heat transfer properties to perform the hydrogenation. Eliminating the solvent, or minimizing it, would help Synthomer to reduce the CO2 footprint of the process and meet the target of the energy transition of 2030. This project is focusing on the investigation of a solvent free Regalite™ process in order to reduce the carbon footprint, optimize the operational costs and drive the innovation by determining the feasibility of new technologies.
The preliminary scanning of the process outlined that the recovery of the solvent and the preheating of the feed before the hydrogenation reactors are responsible for most of the total energy consumption of the process. Eliminating/minimizing the solvent will lower the total mass flow in the process, leading to lower energy consumptions. Moreover, the improvement of the reactor technology could lead to less severe operating conditions, bringing additional benefits in terms of energy demand of the process.
On one hand increasing the resin concentration can help reaching the goals of the energy transition but on the other hand, there are many challenges related to the transport properties of the pure resin, the hydrogenation reaction kinetic and the thermal degradation of the resin. In order to propose a feasible solvent-free process an extensive literature study has been performed to investigate available alternative technologies for hydrogenation. Additionally, laboratory tests have been planned to obtain important information about the degradation and the thermodynamic properties of the pure resin such as the viscosity.
The outcome of the literature review is a list of three technologies that have been further investigated during the project. The selection has been performed using the decision matrix to evaluate which technology has the potential to substitute the current reactors system and bring improvements to the system. The selected reactors have been evaluated based on the availability of information and the possibility to run kinetic tests.
The technical feasibility confirmed the potential in terms of energy saving but showed some bottlenecks over the pure resin process as well. The final result of the project is a list of guidelines and recommendation on how to overcome the bottlenecks and how to continue investigating the selected technologies.
The preliminary scanning of the process outlined that the recovery of the solvent and the preheating of the feed before the hydrogenation reactors are responsible for most of the total energy consumption of the process. Eliminating/minimizing the solvent will lower the total mass flow in the process, leading to lower energy consumptions. Moreover, the improvement of the reactor technology could lead to less severe operating conditions, bringing additional benefits in terms of energy demand of the process.
On one hand increasing the resin concentration can help reaching the goals of the energy transition but on the other hand, there are many challenges related to the transport properties of the pure resin, the hydrogenation reaction kinetic and the thermal degradation of the resin. In order to propose a feasible solvent-free process an extensive literature study has been performed to investigate available alternative technologies for hydrogenation. Additionally, laboratory tests have been planned to obtain important information about the degradation and the thermodynamic properties of the pure resin such as the viscosity.
The outcome of the literature review is a list of three technologies that have been further investigated during the project. The selection has been performed using the decision matrix to evaluate which technology has the potential to substitute the current reactors system and bring improvements to the system. The selected reactors have been evaluated based on the availability of information and the possibility to run kinetic tests.
The technical feasibility confirmed the potential in terms of energy saving but showed some bottlenecks over the pure resin process as well. The final result of the project is a list of guidelines and recommendation on how to overcome the bottlenecks and how to continue investigating the selected technologies.
| Original language | English |
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| Place of Publication | Eindhoven |
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| Publication status | Published - 15 Sept 2022 |
