Geminox® process

The Geminox process oxidizes n-butane in air over a vanadium-phosphorous oxide catalyst in a fluid-bed reactor to maleic anhydride, which is then quenched to maleic acid by absorbing it into water. This highly acidic stream is then pumped to two high-pressure fixed-bed hydrogenation reactors containing carbon-supported catalysts to convert maleic acid to BDO. The major product of reaction, a mixture of 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and y-butyrolactone, is then separated by fractional distillation. The yield of... 

Geminox A direct process for converting butane to 1,4-butanediol. The butane is first oxidized in the gas phase to maleic anhydride, using BP s fluidized bed technology. The maleic anhydride is scrubbed with water and then catalytically dehydrogenated to butanediol. Developed in 1994 by BP Chemicals and Lurgi. Modifications of the process can be used to make tetrahydrofiuan and y-butyrolactone. The first plant will probably be built on BP s site at Lima, OH, for completion in 2000. 

Description BP Chemicals has combined its 40 years of experience in fluid-bed oxidation technology with Lurgi AG s 30 years of hydrogenation expertise to jointly develop a direct, dual-reactor process, called GEMINOX. 

Economics The GEMINOX technology uses fewer processing steps, as found in competing BDO technologies, leading to significant capital... 

Cooperation of chemical, refinery, and chemical engineering companies in new processes, whereby the partners use their specific know-how to accelerate process development, for example, Geminox (BP/Lurgi fluidized-bed oxidation and selective hydrogenation), Cyclar (BP/UOP fluidized-bed and regeneration technology). 

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