Tüpraş and EU Project

MACBETH (Membranes and Catalyst Beyond Economic and Technological Hurdles) In the process industry, the operations that require the greatest energy and resource consumption are the downstream processes. In order to contribute to Europe achieving its goal of a clean and livable environment, new processes with a widely applicable concept are needed for the effective integration of downstream operations in the entire process chain. This will provide cost-efficient operations and significantly increase the competitiveness of the European process industry. MACBETH consortium offers a breakthrough technological advancement by combining the integration of catalytic synthesis and the accompanying separation units into a single, custom-built, extremely effective catalytic membrane reactor (CMR). [caption id="attachment_158545" align="aligncenter"] TÜPRAŞ R&D Project Team Top[/caption] Top Row Left to Right; Dr. Serdar Çelebi Materials and Reaction Technologies Area Lead / R&D Chapter Lead / Materials and Reaction Dr. Tuğba Özaltın R&D Technical Lead (Operations & Quality Management) / Operations & Quality Management Dr. Cem Açıksarı R&D Technical Lead (Materials) / Materials Oktay Tunus R&D Technical Lead (Maintenance) / Maintenance Bottom Row Left to Right; Feriye Şenol Kaptı R&D Technical Lead (Project & Incentive Management) / Project & Incentive Management Merve Caner R&D Senior Researcher (Operations & Quality Management) / Operations & Quality Management Irmak Su Ökten R&D Researcher (Materials) / Materials Gizem Sultan İş R&D Researcher (Reaction) / Reaction 27 partners with diverse expertise and capabilities in catalytic processes and membrane technologies came together within MACBETH for the first time to be able to transfer the technological concept to other sectors of the chemical industry. The MACBETH consortium combines the catalytic synthesis step with the highly efficient separation step via a tailor-made membrane. The preceding EU-funded projects ROMEO, BIONICO and CARENA and further fundamental developments have laid a strong basis by showing proof of concept for CMRs at TRL 5. Successful pilot plants have been operated for highly relevant and large-scale processes: i) Hydroformylation (HYFO), ii) Hydrogen production (H2), iii) Propane dehydrogenation (PDH). Key members of these consortium have now joined forces in MACBETH to bring and demonstrate CMR to the level of TRL 6/7 and build the basis to move forward for commercialisation of the three novel technologies. Moreover, the knowledge and experiences from these successful European projects provide the basis for tailor-made CMR solutions broadly applicable at significantly different conditions in almost any sector of the process industry requiring separation after catalytic synthesis. In order to demonstrate exploitation level, MACBETH extends the CMR technology to the field of biotechnology which employs bacteria or enzymes as special forms of catalyst in biotechnological reactions. In this field, the selective enzymatic cleavage of fatty acids is of particularly high commercial interest. A demo plant for bio-catalytic oil cleavage (BOC) will be operated and exhibit the commercial applicability of CMR in biotechnology for the first time based on a large variety of already established building blocks (such as catalysts, membranes, support materials and reactor concepts). The conversion of olefins and syngas to aldehydes is a key reaction in the chemical industry to manufacture specialty chemicals. The hydroformylation (HYFO) case focuses on the optimization of: i) Support material and structure for efficient use of the catalytic system, ii) Catalytic system to increase yield and selectivity, iii) Polymeric membrane for separation efficiency and permeate flow and iv) Operating parameters. For the demo phase, the HYFO case will be placed in bypass to the conventional hydroformylation production plant at Evonik's Marl site for real industrial-scale conditions. In the H2 case, natural gas or biogas methane is converted to H2 at a much lower temperature by using a novel reactor concept integrating H2 separation in situ during the reforming reaction in a single vessel. This will increase the overall process efficiency (from 59% to more than 70% for biogas) and cost efficiency by decreasing volumes and components in the process. Propylene is a valuable feedstock and is used to manufacture a number of chemicals and commonly used materials such as polypropylene, acrolein, acetone and polyacrylonitrile. Propylene can be obtained conventionally as a by-product of ethylene production and as a result of cracking petroleum-derived naphtha. An alternative dedicated production process is required to provide adequate propylene supply against growing demand. Catalytic propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is the most cost-effective alternative to the cracking processes to bridge the gap between growing global demand and current production capacity. The propane dehydrogenation (PDH) case technology mitigates the harsh conditions required for selective propane dehydrogenation by optimized low temperature operation (500-550°C) resulting in the avoidance of catalyst deactivation. This will lead to fewer regeneration steps, improved process management and longer plant and catalyst lifetime. Additionally, the improvement of propylene selectivity significantly reduces gaseous side products in the process stream. Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (Tüpraş) has supplied Türkiye's energy over 60 years as a leading petroleum company with four refineries (İzmit, İzmir, Kırıkkale, Batman). Tüpraş has committed to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and becoming carbon neutral by 2050. In line with this target, Tüpraş has shaped its strategy and investment within the scope of sustainable refining, biofuels, zero-carbon electricity and green H2. Contributing to its strategic goals, Tüpraş takes part in many innovative EU projects, such as MACBETH, aiming to develop processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tüpraş participates in the PDH case in the MACBETH project and has two main roles. The first role that was defined during the project proposal phase is to scale up the best performing Pt-based PDH catalyst, studied and defined by another project partner University of Salerno (UNISA) at lab scale for use in Tüpraş PDH demo plant. The second role that was decided after the last amendment is to demonstrate PDH at TRL 6 by testing the developed membrane and catalyst in the MACBETH project. Tüpraş has manufactured different catalyst formulations using the Pt-based benchmark catalyst defined by UNISA. Promising PDH catalysts shaped via extrusion process and impregnated by Tüpraş, taking into account the final catalyst compositions defined by UNISA, were tested in Tüpraş PDH plant. After various reaction tests, Tüpraş finally achieved the project target of 95% propylene selectivity and the catalyst remained stable long term. Hence, in the present state, Tüpraş has identified the optimum catalyst formulation and reaction conditions to reach the project targets. Tüpraş will manufacture up to 1 kg of the best performing catalyst to be used in demo operation. On the other hand, Tüpraş is also working on the revamp of its current plant to TRL-6 level for integrated CMR and its demo operation. The demo plant is planned to be ready for demonstration and startup of the PDH pilot plant is planned to be completed within the first quarter of 2024 for 500 hours of continuous operation using the developed PDH catalyst. [caption id="attachment_158547" align="aligncenter"] Tüpraş PDH pilot plant before revamp[/caption] [caption id="attachment_158548" align="aligncenter"] PDH catalyst manufactured by Tüpraş[/caption]