Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Linde Engineering announce transfer of HDA technology

On Mar 6, 2018

The Engineering Division of The Linde Group (Linde) and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) have concluded a definite agreement for transfer of MCC’s Hydrodealkylation (HDA) technology to Linde.

For more than 45 years, MCC’s cutting edge HDA process has been deployed and successfully operated in a number of commercial plants.

During the signing ceremony: Yoshitaka Arakawa, Senior Associate Director, Division General Manager, Basic Petrochemicals Divison (left) and John van der Velden, Managing Director, Linde Engineering Division (right). Source: Linde Engineering

The HDA technology mainly converts toluene and other aromatic components into high purity benzene. This can be leveraged for maximizing the overall benzene yield in olefin plants, e.g. steam crackers.

In addition, HDA technology can also be implemented for a variety of refinery applications. Benzene is one of the most widely used chemicals involved in manufacturing of daily use products such as detergents, plastic and rubber.

“We are very excited about MCC having given us the opportunity to further expand our portfolio adjacent to the steam cracker technology. MCC’s HDA technology will facilitate our world class go-to-market licensing strategy. Our primary objective is to provide optimized and highly integrated HDA applications to the petrochemicals industry for both revamps or expansions at existing ethylene plants as well as for new world scale petrochemical complexes,” said John van der Velden, Managing Director, Linde Engineering Division.

“MHC process is old HDA technology, has a history of commercial operation more than 40 years. I sincerely hope that this technology transfer will create new added value soon by integrating with Linde’s excellent steam cracker technology, “ said Yoshitaka Arakawa, Senior Associate Director, Division General Manager, Basic Petrochemicals Division, MCC.

The technology transfer to Linde is expected to be completed by June this year. Based on Linde’s long-standing and leading expertise in olefin plant design, engineering and construction, Linde now offers HDA technology solutions with best in class economic performance.