Polyetheramine (PEA) has a wide range of application fields, and local companies have great room for technological improvement.

Polyetheramine (PEA), also known as amino-terminated polyether, polyetherpolyamine, and polyetheramine, is an organic compound. Polyetheramine is made from copolymers such as polyethylene glycol and polypropylene glycol, which are ammoniated under high temperature and pressure. It has the characteristics of good stability, resistance to whitening and scratch resistance, and has been widely used in many fields.

According to the “2022 Global and China Polyetheramine Industry In-depth Research Report released by the Industrial Research Center, the raw materials of polyetheramine are Potassium hydroxide, propylene oxide, liquid ammonia and propylene glycol, of which propylene oxide and propylene glycol account for nearly 50.0% of its production costs. In 2021, my country’s propylene oxide production reached 3.678 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 26.9%. In recent years, my country’s propylene glycol production has maintained a steady growth trend, and the market is in a situation of relative oversupply. The sufficient supply of raw materials lays the foundation and guarantee for the development of my country’s polyetheramine industry. However, affected by factors such as the epidemic, my country’s polyetheramine production has declined. In 2021, my country’s polyetheramine output reached 83,000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 17.6%.

The polyetheramine industry has high technical barriers, and currently the catalytic amination method is the mainstream process for preparing polyetheramines. The catalytic amination method is a continuous production technology that requires ammonia water, triacetoneamine and ammonia gas as raw materials, and is made into polyetheramine under the action of a catalyst. Compared with the traditional catalytic method, the catalytic amination method has the advantages of less environmental pollution, high product purity, and high raw material utilization, and is widely used by overseas chemical companies. The production of polyetheramines in my country mostly adopts intermittent processes. The product conversion rate is low and there are many side reactions. Compared with overseas advanced levels, there is a clear gap.

Polyetheramine is widely used in many fields such as wind power generation, new energy vehicles, and building materials. Wind power generation is the largest demand end for polyetheramine, accounting for 47.5% of the demand. Polyetheramine has the advantages of anti-aging, high toughness, and high strength. It can effectively improve the application performance of high-tech materials and is mostly used in the production of wind turbine blades. In recent years, my country’s wind power blade industry has developed rapidly, and there are dozens of local companies with an annual production capacity of more than 1,000 sets of wind power blades. Against this background, the scale of my country’s polyetheramine market continues to expand, reaching 3.0 billion yuan in 2021.

The world’s leading polyetheramine companies include Huntsman of the United States and BASF of Germany. The above two companies have achieved monopoly on the continuous production technology of polyetheramine. In recent years, my country’s local companies have continued to carry out technological innovation. The annual production capacity of polyetheramines of Chenhua New Materials, Zhengda New Materials and Akoli has reached 10,000 tons.

Industry analysts said that polyetheramine, as an important raw material for high-performance composite materials, has a wide range of downstream applications and huge market demand. With the release of downstream market demand, the scale of my country’s polyetheramine market will further expand in the future. As the severe epidemic situation is gradually brought under control, my country’s polyetheramine production is expected to pick up. However, at present, the production technology is relatively backward and remains the main challenge facing the development of my country’s polyetheramine industry.