Xinjiang Tianyejian 15,000-ton succinic acid pilot plant has been completed

On November 27, 2023, the maleic anhydride aqueous catalytic hydrogenation method to produce succinic acid, jointly developed by the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Xinjiang Tianye (Group), completed an 8,000-hour pilot test test.

Production method of succinic acid

The production methods of succinic acid mainly include chemical synthesis, biological fermentation and electrolysis.

The electrolysis method uses maleic anhydride as the raw material for electrolytic reduction to prepare succinic acid. After development, the electrolytic synthesis technology and process are relatively mature, the electrolysis yield, current efficiency and conversion rate are high, and high-purity succinic acid can be produced.

The biological fermentation method uses starch, cellulose, glucose, sucrose, milk or other waste materials that can be utilized by microorganisms as raw materials, and uses bacteria or other microbial fermentation methods to produce succinic acid and its derivatives.

The maleic anhydride hydrogenation method is to dissolve maleic anhydride in a solvent and hydrogenate it, then distill it to obtain succinic anhydride, which is then hydrolyzed to obtain succinic acid.

Advantages and prospects of aqueous phase method

Compared with the current electrolysis method, biological fermentation method and maleic anhydride solvent hydrogenation method, the aqueous phase method for producing succinic acid has the advantages of short process flow, low energy consumption, and no “three wastes” pollution, which can significantly reduce the production cost of succinic acid.

During the operation of the 10-ton pilot plant, the conversion rate of maleic acid is ≥99.9%, the selectivity of succinic acid is ≥99.9%, the purity of the product succinic acid is ≥99.9%, the amount of succinic acid produced per ton of catalyst is ≥10,000 tons, and the solvent Water can be recycled. This succinic acid pilot product is provided to downstream manufacturers for trial use to produce high-quality biodegradable material PBS.

Polybutylene succinate (PBS), synthesized from succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol, is considered to have the best comprehensive performance among many biodegradable plastics. At present, the high production cost of succinic acid makes PBS expensive, which seriously limits the promotion and application of PBS.

The aqueous catalytic hydrogenation of maleic acid is currently the most promising method for the synthesis of succinic acid in the industry. It has the advantages of high conversion rate, simple separation, high product purity, and no obvious side reactions. It opens up the way for low-cost production of succinic acid. A new path.

At present, Hunan Changlian New Material Technology Co., Ltd. also has a pilot plant for aqueous phase hydrogenation to produce succinic acid.

Xinjiang Tianye builds 15,000 tons succinic acid project

On the basis of the pilot test, Xinjiang Tianye Xiangtai New Materials Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xinjiang Tianye, plans to invest 275.5753 million yuan to build a new green succinic acid with an annual output of 15,000 tons using the maleic anhydride aqueous catalytic hydrogenation method. Synthetic project, the project has received environmental impact assessment approval in July 2023.

After the final construction of all projects is completed, it will form an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons, and the project is expected to invest 1 billion yuan.

The project’s designed annual consumption of maleic anhydride is 12,456 tons/year, and the maleic anhydride is purchased from outside. It mainly comes from Karamay Jinyuan Fine Chemical Co., Ltd. (Karamay City, Xinjiang) and Xinjiang Kailianjie Petrochemical Company (Luntai County, Xinjiang).

The designed annual hydrogen consumption of the project is 3,428,992 m3/year. The hydrogen comes from the 600,000-ton ethylene glycol device of Tianye Huihe New Materials Co., Ltd., which is about 100m east of the project area.

The catalyst used in the project is jointly developed and supplied by Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd. and Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The annual consumption of hydrogenation catalyst is 3 tons. According to reports, this catalyst breaks through the bottleneck of existing catalyst preparation technology, overcomes the difficulty of removing heat from the reaction, and solves the pain points of high cost, high pollution, and small scale of the existing process. This technology won the 12th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in 2023 (Corps Division) Third Prize in the Start-up Group.