Aromatics are the main building blocks for petrochemical products and intermediates. With the majority of US crackers switching to natural gas liquids, aromatics supply from crackers has fallen in recent years. In 2017, US imported more than 1.8 million tons of benzene mainly due to the shift to a very light feedstock (mainly ethane) in steam crackers. As a result, the aromatics industry will be increasingly dependent on on-purpose processes to meet the growing demand for aromatics. Developing routes to aromatics from low-cost NGLs (e.g., ethane and propane) would be a significant development and could stimulate US investment in new aromatics capacity. The objective of this SBIR project is to develop a new on-purpose process for manufacturing aromatic derivatives using low-cost shale-derived ethane as feedstocks. At the core of this technology is a unique mixed-metal oxide based bi-functional catalyst which selectively converts ethane to ethylene and BTX. These products can then be converted to valuable aromatic derivatives such as styrene, phenol or para-xylene. During the Phase I project, mixed-metal oxide catalysts will be designed, synthesized and optimized to yield commercially-viable levels of performance. The reaction will be validated under conditions that represent the viable commercial range of operation. A detailed techno-economic evaluation will validate the initial cost of production estimates. This new process has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of production of aromatic derivatives using readily available low- cost ethane and propane which will lead to wide-spread adoption of this technology in the industry ushering in a new era for shale-gas based chemicals production processes.
