Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical has begun construction of a pilot plant to produce propylene directly from ethanol, a project supported by the New Energy and Industrial Development Organization (NEDO) Green Innovation Fund. Sumitomo will complete the construction of the pilot plant at the Sodegaura site in the first half of 2025, thereby accelerating the marketization of this technology as quickly as possible.
Currently, propylene is mainly produced by cracking fossil resources such as naphtha. Ethanol can be produced from biomass, such as cane sugar and corn; at the same time, there are also expectations to use combustible waste, waste plastics or carbon dioxide as raw materials to produce ethanol through large-scale technology.
Sumitomo Chemical’s new pilot plant will use ethanol to produce propylene, and it is developing a new process with intellectual property rights to produce propylene from ethanol. This process is cost-effective and compact compared to current processes that produce propylene through multiple intermediates. In addition, while producing propylene for which there is a stable demand, the by-product is also commercially valuable hydrogen.
Sumitomo plans to start commercial production through this process in the early 2030s and sell the process patent at the same time.
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