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Raising the bar in catalyst selectivity

The latest generation of high selectivity ethylene oxide (EO) catalyst offers producers worldwide the chance of achieving step-out improvements in yields.

A new high selectivity EO catalyst, S-888, offers the promise of a significant improvement over all existing catalyst/process technology combinations.

Marek Matusz, Senior Research Chemist with Shell Global Solutions

Catalysts are crucial to speeding up chemical reactions, improving yields and delivering competitive petrochemical manufacturing.

The discovery by Shell technologists (led by Marek Matusz, left) of a new high selectivity EO catalyst, S-888, offers the promise of a significant improvement over all existing catalyst/process technology combinations.

Catalyst selectivity determines how much EO is produced versus ethylene feedstock consumed. A one percent increase in selectivity for a world scale EO plant can be worth millions of dollars per year in value.

An improvement of two or three percent, as the new S-888 high selectivity catalyst can deliver, becomes a major competitive advantage, especially given that significant increases in yield are becoming harder to find. An efficient catalyst also helps to reduce plant CO2 emissions as less of the greenhouse gas is produced as a byproduct.

S-888 high selectivity EO catalyst

The development of the S-888 catalyst is the latest in a long history of pioneering innovation in EO catalyst and process technology by Shell that started in 1958.

The Shell MASTER Process for converting ethylene to ethylene oxide has been proven over many years operation, in both Shell plants and those of co-producers across the world. It has been developed to maximise the performance of high selectivity catalysts where Shell, through its affiliate CRI Catalyst Company, has also led the industry.

Since its introduction, the S-888 catalyst has achieved industry leading selectivity rates and is now an integral part of the package of proprietary process technology that Shell licenses to other EO producers. It is of particular interest to operators of some of the newest plants coming on stream in the Middle East and Asia, due to the favourable operating conditions for high selectivity these installations can achieve.

Today, over 30% of the world’s EO is produced in Shell-licensed and designed plants, and around 50% of global EO production uses Shell/CRI catalysts.

This feature was added to the Innovations section in February 2011