Propane price

One of the sources predicts that ethane prices will reach 1.1—1.3 /lb and propane prices 1.2-1.4 /lb on the Gulf Coast in the mid 1970 s. 

Propane and butane (LPG) price set by reference to the prevailing LPG market. There is a very large trade in LPG in the major economies. Its main use is as a commercial energy fuel it is used in very large amounts to this end. Most of the big producers in the US or the North Sea sell to the local markets. This leaves Saudi Arabia as the major swing producer which sells according the supply and demand across the world. The consequence is that most LPG prices are set relative to the Saudi Aramco contract price which is set on a monthly basis. The history of the propane Aramco and US propane price is illustrated in Figure 3.8. 

Figure 8.4 Sensitivity of ethylene production cost to propane price...

Oil statistics, natural gas and propane prices are readily available from the US Energy Information Administration website (www.eia.gov) which as well collating a vast amount of current and historical data offers useful links to other sites. 

The basis of the economic evaluation is the comparison of operating and investment costs for a membrane reactor with those for a conventional dehydrogenation plant. The return on investment (ROI) and the propylene production costs of the different processes have been calculated. The results are summarised in Table 14.6. Details of the calculations are reported in Ref. [33]. In the calculations a propane price of 130 /tonne and a propylene price of 330 /tonne has been assumed [33]. 

Where we wish to operate within this feasible space will depend on the process economics. If both products have a similar value then there is no incentive to maximise one at the expense of the other. Profit would therefore be maximum by operating exactly on both specifications and would be reflected as an energy saving. But, for example, if propane were considerably more valuable than butane then we would not wish to leave C3 material in the bottom product. It would economic to produce butane at purity greater than the specification demands. We would, however, want to operate at the lowest permitted propane purity in order to maximise the amount of C4 material that is sold at the propane price. We would therefore wish to operate at a higher distillate cut. How large depends on the cost of the additional energy required to recover the additional propane. This falls into the area of optimisation that we cover later in this chapter. 

If however propane is more valuable than butane we still want to produce propane exactly on specification (to maximise the C4 sold at propane prices) but may wish to operate with giveaway against the butane specification. If the additional C3 recovered from bottoms is more valuable than the additional energy cost we want to move away for the intersection of the constraints along the line of constant The decision we have to make is how far we move along this line. 

Because of the large price differential between propane and propylene, which has ranged from 155/t to 355 /1 between 1987 and 1989, a propane-based process may have the economic potential to displace propylene ammoxidation technology eventually. Methane, ethane, and butane, which are also less expensive than propylene, and acetonitrile have been disclosed as starting materials for acrylonitrile synthesis in several catalytic process schemes (66,67). 

Fig. 2. Quarterly olefin feedstock prices, 1978—1991, for (D) ethane (+) propane (<)) light naphtha, and (A) naphtha.

Fig. 3. Price ratio of various feeds to ethane, 1978—1991 (D) propane—ethane, (+) light naphtha—ethane, and (<)) fuU-range naphtha—ethane.

The market value of natural gas Hquids is highly volatile and historically has been weakly related to the world price of cmde oil. During the 1980s, the market value of natural gas Hquids ranged from approximately 60% of the price of cmde to 73% (12). In this 10-year interval, several fluctuations occurred in the natural gas Hquid market. Because of the variabiHty of the natural gas Hquid market, the NGL recovery plants need to have flexibiHty. Natural gas Hquid products compete in the following markets ethane propane a Hquefted petroleum gas (LPG) a C-3/C-4 mix and / -butane all compete as petrochemical feedstocks. Propane and LPG are also used as industrial and domestic fuels, whereas 2-butane and natural gasoline, consisting of C-5 and heavier hydrocarbons, are used as refinery feedstocks. 

The economics of the arc-coal process is sensitive to the electric power consumed to produce a kilogram of acetylene. Early plant economic assessments indicated that the arc power consumption (SER = kwh/kgC2H2) must be below 13.2. The coal feedcoal quench experiments yielded a 9.0 SER with data that indicated a further reduction to below 6.0 with certain process improvements. In the propane quench experiment, ethylene as well as acetylene is produced. The combined process SER was 6.2 with a C2H2/C2H4 production ratio of 3 to 2. Economic analysis was completed uti1i2ing the achieved acetylene yields, and an acetylene price approximately 35% lower than the price of ethylene was projected. 

Naphtha at one time was a more popular feed, and alkah-promoted catalysts were developed specifically for use with it. As of 1994 the price of naphtha in most Western countries is too high for a reformer feed, and natural gas represents the best economical feedstock. However, where natural gas is not available, propane, butane, or naphtha is preferentially selected over fuel oil or coal. 

Although the metabolism of tetrathionate has not been established in detail, it presumably takes place via thiosulfate, sulhte, and sulhde. Tetrathionate, which is a component of some media for enrichment of salmonellas, is able to support the anaerobic growth of Salmonella sp. using glycerol or acetate, and S. enterica with ethanolamine or propan-l,2-diol when vitamin Bj2 is available (Price-Carter et al. 2001). 

The increasing volume of chemical production, insufficient capacity and high price of olefins stimulate the rising trend in the innovation of current processes. High attention has been devoted to the direct ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile. A number of mixed oxide catalysts were investigated in propane ammoxidation [1]. However, up to now no catalytic system achieved reaction parameters suitable for commercial application. Nowadays the attention in the field of activation and conversion of paraffins is turned to catalytic systems where atomically dispersed metal ions are responsible for the activity of the catalysts. Ones of appropriate candidates are Fe-zeolites. Very recently, an activity of Fe-silicalite in the ammoxidation of propane was reported [2, 3]. This catalytic system exhibited relatively low yield (maximally 10% for propane to acrylonitrile). Despite the low performance, Fe-silicalites are one of the few zeolitic systems, which reveal some catalytic activity in propane ammoxidation, and therefore, we believe that it has a potential to be improved. Up to this day, investigation of Fe-silicalite and Fe-MFI catalysts in the propane ammoxidation were only reported in the literature. In this study, we compare the catalytic activity of Fe-silicalite and Fe-MTW zeolites in direct ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile. 

Fig. 11.5 Price evolution for glycerol and propane-1,2-diol. (After [98]).

Propylene, like ethylene, is a colorless gas at room temperature. It is as flammable as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas or propane). In fact, propylene can be used as a. substitute or supplement to LPG. The fuel characteristics are nearly indistinguishable. However, the petrochemicals industry bids propylene away from the fuels market and gives it a much higher price than LPG. 

Cracking large hydrocarbons usually results in olefins, molecules with double bonds. Thats why the refinery cat crackers and thermal crackers are sources of ethylene and propylene. But the largest source is olefin plants where ethylene and propylene are the primary products of cracking one or more of the following ethane, propane, butane, naphtha, or gas oil. The choice of feedstock depends both on the olefins plant design and the market price of the feeds. 

Kanazirev, V., Price, G.L, and Dooley, K.M. (1990) Enhancement in propane aromatization with Ga203/HZSM-5 catalysts. J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., 712-713. 

Propylene is manufactured by steam cracking of hydrocarbons as discussed under ethylene. The best feedstocks are propane, naphtha, or gas oil, depending on price and availability. About 50-75% of the propylene is consumed by the petroleum refining industry for alkylation and polymerization of propylene to oligomers that are added to gasoline. A smaller amount is made by steam cracking to give pure propylene for chemical manufacture. 

Table 8.1 shows the stochastic model solution for the petrochemical system. The solution indicated the selection of 22 processes with a slightly different configuration and production capacities from the deterministic case, Table 4.2 in Chapter 4. For example, acetic acid was produced by direct oxidation of n-butylenes instead of the air oxidation of acetaldehyde. Furthermore, ethylene was produced by pyrolysis of ethane instead of steam cracking of ethane-propane (50-50 wt%). These changes, as well as the different production capacities obtained, illustrate the effect of the uncertainty in process yield, raw material and product prices, and lower product... 

The base price of the MMC-5 unit is 56,200 (1992 dollars). For the thermal oxidizer portion of the MMC-5 unit, maximum daily fuel cost for natural gas would be 60 (1992 dollars), and maximum daily fuel cost for propane would be 95 (1992 dollars). For the catalytic oxidizer portion of the MMC-5 unit, the maximum daily electrical cost would be 22 (1992 dollars), assuming an electric preheater rated for 36 kW at 480 V is used at 240 V. The daily cost to operate the vacuum/compression unit for the MMC-5 is 6 (1992 dollars), assuming a 3-hp electric motor drawing 2.3 kW is used. 

Processes based on propane ammoxidation to manufacture acrylonitrile have also been developed,915 966 and BP has announced commercialization.966 Dehydrogenation at high reaction temperature (485-520°C), which is about 100°C higher than for propylene ammoxidation, results in the formation of propylene, which subsequently undergoes normal ammoxidation. Despite higher investments and the markedly lower selectivity (30-40%), the process can be economical because of the price difference between propylene and propane.966 Better selectivites can be achieved at lower (40-60%) conversions. 

The prices and values shown must be considered as illustrative only rather than as an attempt to predict the future. They are based generally on literature data averages and on discussions with a number of chemical and refining companies. While the figures used are generally representative of present price levels, in some cases a simplification is used—e.g., taking ethane, propane, and butane prices at 1 cent/lb. 

In the United States. With premium by-product prices prevailing, ethylene can be made from n-butane more cheaply than from either ethane or propane, assuming these light hydrocarbon feeds would be all available at 1 /lb. 

With these types of increases in production costs arising from higher NGL prices, the heavier feedstocks would become much more competitive at the existing price valuations for U.S. naphtha, heavy gas oil, and by-products. Note from Figure 6 that if propane goes to 1.4 /lb the ethylene production cost would go to 3.3 /lb, whereas the cost from 1.1 /lb heavy gas oil will be slightly less at 3-3.1 /lb, and the cost from 1.6 /lb naphtha would be about 3.4 /lb. 

Figure 6 shows that with the present level of premium valuation for by-products, a 1.1 /lb naphtha price would result in this feedstock having an advantage over ethane, propane or butane at 1 /lb. The cost for naphtha-based ethylene in this case would be only 1.94 /lb vs. 2.04, 2.36, and 2.47 /lb from n-butane, propane, and ethane, respectively. The breakeven prices for the light feedstocks that would correspond to the 1.1 /lb naphtha price would be 0.6, 0.82, and 0.95 /lb for ethane, pro-... 

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