Chemical & Petrochemical

tec5USA process analytical technology provides unique monitoring tools to the petrochemical and chemical plant. Our highly robust systems have no moving parts, which account for the high reproducibility necessary for process applications. Ingress Protection and explosion proof housing capabilities allow for system integration near the reaction vessels. The systems are designed with permanent wavelength calibration, where re-calibration of the spectrometer is unnecessary.

Process Chemistry

Chemical monitoring with in-line spectroscopy is essential for real time process control. For efficient chemical conversion and quality assurance, tec5’s spectrometer systems provide high accuracy, reproducibility and fast acquisition. UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy is key to measuring polymers, plastics, specialty chemicals and both organic and inorganic compounds.

Petrochemicals

Petrochemicals or petroleum distillates, are derived from the refinement of crude oil, natural gas, or renewable sources. In-line analysis of petrochemicals incorporated into processing plants will improve quality control measurements. Our solutions are designed for real time analysis with high reproducibility, high efficiency, no movable parts and high dynamic range.

Crude Oil Refinement

Many NIR applications of measuring different properties of diverse refinery product

Gasoline
- Octane Number (RON and MON)
- Aromatic content
- Benzene content

Diesel
- Cetane Number
- Distillation Number
- Pour point

Naphtha
- PIANO (paraffin, isoparaffin, aromatic, naphthene, olefin) compositions
- PNA analysis: total paraffin, total naphthene, total aromatic content

Crude Oil/ atmospheric residue (AR)
- TBP (true boiling point)

Gasoline Quality Control

Octane Number Determination

CFR Engine for rating fuels

Expensive
Destructive
Produce exhaust gas
Slow analysis (~30 min/sample)
Consumes large amount of materials (i.e. iso-octane, n-heptane and fuel samples)

Optical Spectroscopy

Non-destructive
Real time results
Continuous monitoring
Environmentally friendly
No sample preparation
Multiple measurement positions

VS.

Naphtha reforming

Raman spectroscopy is used to identify isomers of Xylene:
p-xylene, o-xylene, m-xylene
p-xylene is a precursor to dimethyl terephthalate and terephthalic acid; monomers in PET production
- Utilized for plastic bottles and polyester clothing
- p-Xylene is separated via distillation or reaction processes
o-xylene is a starting material for the production of phthalic anhydride.
- Phthalic anhydride is a precursor in the production of plasticizers
m-xylene is used in production of purified isophthalic acid (PIA)
- PIA used as intermediate in production of polyester resins
- PIA is increasingly used as co-polymer in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin bottles

Natural Gas Refinement

The refinement of natural gas includes the extraction of heavier hydrocarbons to produce dry methane.
Separated natural gas liquids (NGLs) are utilized as a chemical feedstock for petrochemical plants, burned for space heating and blended into a fuel.
Methane, ethane, propane and butanes are petrochemicals generated from Natural gas processing plants