Commercial experience

Two commercial units based on the STAR process^® technology have been commissioned for the dehydrogenation of isobutane integrated with the production of MTBE:

• the first, for Coastal Chemical Inc., Cheyenne, Wy, USA, was commissioned in 1992
  and produces 100,000 tpy of isobutene.
• the other, for Polybutenos, Argentina, was designed for a capacity of 40,000 tpy of isobutene
  and was commissioned in 1994.

The successful operation of these plants has clearly demonstrated the high stability of the STAR catalyst^® and the operational simplicity and stability of the STAR process^®.

At the end of 2006 Uhde received a turnkey contract from EPPC for a large-scale integrated propylene / polypropylene complex in Egypt using the STAR process® for the oxydehydrogenation of propane. This contract for a complex with respective annual production capacities of 350,000 tonnes marks the commercial breakthrough for Uhde's enhanced STAR process® technology.