Optimized dehydration technology for significant sustainability benefits

thyssenk­rupp Uhde and BASF have sig­nif­i­cant­ly improved the STAR Process® dehy­dro­gena­tion tech­nol­o­gy. This process pro­duces propy­lene from propane and isobuty­lene from isobu­tane. The part­ners have opti­mized the tech­nol­o­gy and reduced ener­gy con­sump­tion so that CO2 emis­sions and oper­at­ing costs can be cut by up to 30%. In addi­tion, invest­ment costs and raw mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion are also reduced in this way. Since the start of the joint devel­op­ment pro­gram in 2020, the Group has focused on opti­miz­ing and fur­ther devel­op­ing the STAR process, while BASF has val­i­dat­ed the planned improve­ments using an extend­ed test­ing program. 

“The col­lab­o­ra­tion between in the last 18 months since the announce­ment of the joint devel­op­ment agree­ment has been excep­tion­al­ly good and smooth. The teams of both part­ners have con­tributed their spe­cif­ic exper­tise to fur­ther improve the dehy­dra­tion process. The results show that we have sig­nif­i­cant­ly exceed­ed our goals in terms of reduc­ing ener­gy and raw mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion in the STAR process.” 

- Gui­do Daniel, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Petro­chem­i­cals and Polymers 

Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent Process Cat­a­lysts at BASF, said, “We are proud to be involved in this project and to con­tribute our unique exper­tise as the world’s lead­ing cat­a­lyst man­u­fac­tur­er. This joint project is a per­fect exam­ple of how we enable sus­tain­abil­i­ty for our cus­tomers and partners.”