Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.) announced that its subsidiary, Celanese (Nanjing) Chemical Co. Ltd., has recently signed a tri-party agreement with Southwest Institute of Chemical Ltd. (SWCHEM), based in Chengdu, China, and Yankuang Lunan Chemical Co. (Lunan) based in Teng Zhou, China, to build a Pilot Scale-up Unit (PSU) in Teng Zhou, China, to test industrial-scale production of acrylic acid using acetic acid as the principal raw material.
Celanese and SWCHEM are jointly developing an innovative technology of producing acrylic acid with the process of acetic acid formaldehyde condensation based on Celanese’s original proprietary research in this field. Under the terms of the agreement, LUNAN will build an industrial scale pilot plant to finish commercial production trials.
“I am delighted that the collaboration between Celanese and SWCHEM has enabled us to reach such a critical milestone in the development of this new technology to produce acrylic acid from acetic acid. This could create additional demand for acetic acid while also improving the supply options for acrylic acid consumers,” said John Fotheringham, Senior Vice President of Celanese’s Acetyls business.
“SWCHEM has a longstanding relationship with Celanese dating back to 2008,” said Mr. Chen Jiang, President of SWCHEM. “This agreement marks the expansion of our cooperation into deeper value chain of the acetyls industry.”
“We are excited to be part of a winning team,” said Mr. Liu Qiang, President of LUNAN. “The successful commercialization of this technology will promote organic growth of the acetic acid industry and LUNAN is proud to be part of this effort.”
Recently, other projects also have been working on improving acrylic acid production Cargill and P&G are working to commercialize bio-based acrylic acid, and a partnership between Archer Daniels Midland and LG Chem, announced last year is also investigating bio-based raw materials for acrylic acid production.