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SPECIAL FEATURE
Some customers, however, appreciated the opportunity to have catalyst alternatives that differ from the licensor only. The
independent suppliers have obviated the lack of own PO industrial plants working very close to the customers, substantially
developing custom oriented offerings.
Table 5 offers a summary of competitive catalyst/components and process technology licensed, services and marketing synergies
developed by the major suppliers to position themselves successfully in the marketplace. Of particular note are offerings from
companies that are not PO producers, including Grace and Lummus-Novolen.
Grace is a specialty chemical company deeply
involved in the production and sale of many
types of polyolefin catalysts and more recently in
the licensing of Unipol PP, a gas phase process
acquired by Dow. The historical strength of Grace
has been silica, used in their supported chrome
based Magnapore PE catalyst business, used in
CP Chem loop process. The key strategy of Grace
has been to grow the catalyst portfolio through
a series of acquisitions (Neste PE, BASF PE/PP
and Albemarle PO catalysts), partnerships and
new investments. Grace now supplies many PO
catalysts & components including PP ZN-SSC,
HDPE/LLDPE ZN-Cr-SSC, MAO activators named
ActivCat PE/PP, silane advanced external donors
for PP, silica supports, custom production.
Lummus is a successful technology company that
owns and licenses the Novolen PP gas phase
process. Novolen produces its own PP catalyst
series in Germany and has a long-term agreement
with Clariant for the PP catalyst supply to its
licensees. Lummus and Clariant have useful deep
synergy in licensing various process technologies
Table 5. PO Catalyst/process offerings, services and synergies.
Source: Author
and selling catalysts and services related to the PDH
Catofin technology to produce propylene, Lummus thermal crude-to-chemicals technology, or leading Lummus ethane feed steam
cracker.
Other competitors could gain entry to the PO catalyst market in the near future. The necessary needed attributes are a) having a
large R&D capability in PO catalyst/technology, and b) having the potential to reach a sales/service base of about 9 million tons/yr
of PO in the way to reach a large catalyst production (about 300 tons/year) and be competitive in production cost. Some companies
may be included in this profile, including SABIC, Borealis, Reliance as well as some specialty chemical companies in Korea or in
India that could develop cooperation with a PO manufacturer and technology developer.
As indicated previously, the polymerization catalyst market is very competitive with many M&A activities, cooperation's agreements
along the years among the catalyst and components suppliers, the process technology licensors, and so on. This is leading to
significant market events and changes in PE/PP catalyst and technology-licensing businesses (see Figure 9 for a timetable of these
market changes).
* During 2022, LyondellBasell completed a significant
plant investment in the US, notably the expansion
of its ZN catalyst plant in Edison, NJ to double
its capacity and support the growing polyolefins
technology licensing business (Davis, 2022). That same
year, LyondellBasell announced the start-up of a new
PE catalyst production plant at its Frankfurt, Germany,
site to support the growing licensing success,
particularly in emerging countries, of the Hostalen
ACP HDPE technology (LyondellBasell, 2022).
* Lummus recently signed a commercial
cooperation agreement to license and market
EXCENE Texplore's HDPE technology in the
aim of expanding Lummus comprehensive PO
The Catalyst Review
Figure 9. Recent market M&A and disruptions
Source: Author
January 2024
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