Alkoxylation

Buss is recognised by the major manufactures as the world leader in supplying alkoxylation technologies. Its extensive experience with commercial plants, combined with their own laboratory and pilot plants allows building plants on the highest safety level and with growth ratios up to 1 : 85.

Buss ChemTech AG developed an alkoxylation technology which is recognised by the major manufactures as the leading technology in respect of its:

Process Description
A typical Buss alkoxylation plant consists of up to three sections:

• Pre-treatment
• Reaction
• Post-treatment

Each section is operated in batch mode and all sections can operate simultaneously so that there are three batches being processed in the plant at the same time.

Pre-treatment
Initiator and catalyst are metered into the pre-treatment vessel and dehydrated under vacuum according to the product recipe.

Reaction
All reactions are carried out under inert conditions to ensure that the formation of explosive gas mixture is completely eliminated. The total amount of ethylene/propylene oxide in the system is monitored and controlled, so run-away reaction is avoided even in a case of loss of cooling. The section is closed and isolated and no oxide containing gas is released. When the reaction is completed, residue oxide is quickly reduced 1 ppm to for EO and 100 ppm for PO, respectively.

Post-Treatment
Product neutralisation, blending, bleaching and stripping can take place here.

Safety Philosophy
The alkoxylation technology follows the Inherently Safe Design (ISD) guidelines to eliminate potential risks during all process development phases. There are intrinsic levels of safeguards such as:

• elimination of possible ignition sources
• inert conditions during all phases of the reactions
• explosion pressure rated plant design

The unique operating principle of the reaction system ensures that there are no rotating parts, in the gas phase. Additionally, the reactor system is designed to prevent building up of static electrical charges. The unique Buss reaction mixer is designed to ensure no oxide droplets and no product droplets will be in the gas phase. Despite these primary precautions, the plant operates under inert gas conditions permanently controlled by an independent safety automation system. The high performance of the reaction mixer ensures ethylene oxide is consumed as fast as it is taken into the system. Should despite these safety measures the system fail, the plant is designed to absorb the maximum explosion pressure.

Productivity / Efficiency
One of the major profiles of Buss-Loop® Reactor is its very intensive mass transfer and heat removal ability. This allows reaching

• very high ethylene oxide dosing rates (> 1000 kg/hr/m3)
• short cook-down times
• high throughput
• cut down on operational costs

Product Quality
Using the Buss alkoxylation technology you can reach a stable quality without stripping the product.

Residual EO	< 1 ppm	for alcohol and alkyl phenol derivatives
Dioxane	< 4 ppm	for alcohol and alkyl phenol derivatives
Colour	< 20 APHA	for alcohol and alkyl phenol derivatives

Product Portfolio
Extensive production technologies are available. Some examples of derivatives from

• fatty alcohols, -acids, -amines and –ester
• alkyl phenols
• castor oil
• sorbitan
• oleates
• methanol, allyl alcohol, butanol
• MEG, DEG, bis-phenol A and glycerine.

Our experience in unique speciality products, combined with our comprehensive R&D services in laboratories and pilot facilities grant our clients optimised processes leading to cost effective and perform solutions.