Propylene Carbonate Project Starts Production

The 5 000 t/a propylene carbonate project funded by Junma Guangjian Chemical Co., Ltd. located in Shangcai, Henan province with an investment of RMB5.0 million entered the wet commissioning stage on July 10.      The company takes surplus carbon dioxide from the chemical fertilizer production as raw material and uses the new clean production process for the direct synthesis of propylene carbonate through the reaction between scrap carbon dioxide and propylene oxide in near critical conditions. Propylene carbonate is then used for carbon removal in the chemical fertilizer production to achieve the recycle of resources. The process can reduce the steam consumption by 40%, the power consumption by 65%, the water consumption by 60% and the equipment investment by more than 30%. No pollution is caused to environment in the whole production process.     Propylene carbonate can not only be used as high-effect solvent to remove carbon dioxide in petroleum gas, petroleum cracked gas, oilfield gas and ammonia feedstock gas, but also as plasticizer, spinning solvent, water-soluble dyestuff/pigment dispersant, oily solvent and olefin/aromatics extracting agent. Besides, it can also be used as excellent medium for lithium cells. Its market prospect is therefore extremely bright.