With the commissioning of relevant equipment, my country’s independent supply capacity of isononyl alcohol (INA) will increase

Isononyl alcohol (INA) appears as a colorless, viscous liquid with a slight odor, and is miscible with methanol, ether, acetone, ethyl acetate, cyclohexane, chloroform, petroleum ether, etc. Isonononyl alcohol is mainly used as a solvent to produce lubricants, plastic softeners, plasticizers, disinfectants, etc. It is widely used in plastics, automobiles, wires, construction and other fields.

Isononanol has high technical barriers, and its production methods include hydroformylation, ExxonMobil method, Johnson Matthey method, BASF high-pressure oxo synthesis of isononanol process, etc. The upstream products of isononyl alcohol involve 3,5,5-trimethylhexanal, 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene, etc., and the downstream products involve 3,5,5-trimethyl-1 -Hexene, isononanoic acid, 3,5,5-trimethylhexanoyl chloride, etc.

According to the “China Isononyl Alcohol Industry Investment Potential and Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027 released by the Industrial Research Center, due to The technical barriers are high and there are few isononanol manufacturers in the world. Related suppliers include ExxonMobil of the United States, Japan’s Concorde, OQ Chemicals, Germany’s Evonik, Germany’s BASF, Taiwan’s Nanya Plastics, Maoming Petrochemical, Jiangxi Jiayin, etc. Due to insufficient domestic supply, my country’s market demand for isononyl alcohol relies on imports, and import dependence is high, reaching about 80%.

my country’s isononyl alcohol industry started late, but in recent years, with the commissioning of domestic equipment, my country’s isononyl alcohol self-sufficiency capacity has continued to improve. In 2015, Maoming Petrochemical and BASF jointly produced isononyl alcohol using BASF’s process, with a production capacity of 180,000 tons/year, filling the gap in the domestic isononyl alcohol industry; in 2020, Qixiang Tengda introduced France’s Axens’ butene oligomerization Dimersol technology, China’s The low-pressure oxo synthesis LPOXO℠ technology jointly owned by Johnson Matthey and Dow of the United States is used to build a 200,000 tons/year isononanol project. This project is the largest isononanol device in China; in October 2023, Zhenhai Refinery Chemical and BASF signed an agreement to introduce BASF’s proprietary oxo synthesis technology to produce isononanol and build a new isononanol unit.

Isononyl alcohol is mainly used in the production of DINP (diisononyl phthalate), accounting for more than 90% of the consumption of isononyl alcohol. DINP is a new generation of non-toxic environmentally friendly plasticizer with excellent heat resistance, light resistance, aging resistance, electrical insulation, etc. The main global suppliers of DINP include ExxonMobil of the United States, BASF of Germany, and Evonik of Germany, among which ExxonMobil of the United States is in a dominant position. At present, my country’s DINP market is small, but my country is a major producer of plastic products. As environmental protection supervision becomes increasingly strict, DINP will accelerate the replacement of traditional DOP plasticizers, and the industry development prospects are very broad.

Industry analysts said that the technical barriers to isononanol are high and there are few global manufacturers. my country’s market demand relies on imports, but with the With the domestic equipment put into operation, my country’s independent supply capacity of isononyl alcohol will continue to improve. Isononyl alcohol is a key raw material for the non-toxic environmentally friendly plasticizer DINP. Against the background of increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations, the demand for DINP applications will continue to be released, thus creating broad growth space for the development of the isononyl alcohol market.