Advertisement
Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) has achieved a 92% catalyst selectivity at the start of the most recent cycle at its 600 000 tpy monoethylene glycol (MEG) production facility in Saudi Arabia.
The plant uses the Shell OMEGA process, which is based on the catalytic conversion of both ethylene to ethylene oxide and ethylene oxide to ethylene glycol.
Ethylene oxide catalyst selectivity is a key factor in the efficiency of MEG production: a higher selectivity means that smaller volumes of raw material are required to manufacture the product. The cycle that started in May 2020 marked a change in catalyst from Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ S-888 (which had achieved an initial selectivity of 90.9%) to S-889 catalyst. The resulting improvement of just over 1% will deliver significant savings and lead to higher profitability or enhanced competitiveness in what is, at present, a very challenging market. This catalyst upgrade is expected to reduce raw