Course Objectives

• Apply acquired knowledge of the key Petrochemical processes for this Industry
• Understand the wide-ranging business of Petrochemicals
• The production routes to the seven building blocks for Petrochemicals
• The rapid growth and importance of Petrochemicals
• The benefits to customers and colleagues of Petrochemical processes

Course Outline.

• Introduction
• Petrochemicals Gas and Petroleum
  • Feedstock Flowchart and cross linkages
  • Sources of the basic petrochemical building blocks
  • Intermediates, derivatives and end-use markets

The Top 100 Chemicals

• Size, Commodities and Specialties
• Industry characteristics
• Advantages of Global Mega size

Natural Gas C1 and C2 based Chemicals and Processes

• GTL - effective use of cheap Gas
• Methanol and Formaldehyde
• Ethylene and derivatives
• The natural gas/shale gas revolution
• Where does Coal fit in the strategy?
• Olefin Derivatives and uses
• Crude oil, refining, integration with Petrochemical plants
• Market growth and industry costs
• The Petrochemicals Business
• The origins and history of the industry
  • What makes the industry unique?
  • Costs, Margins and Prices
  • Evaluation of the major Players
  • Strategies employed by the major players
  • Industry Profitability
  • Ethylene and Propylene markets

• Petrochemical Process Technology and Key Value Chains
• The Petrochemical Industry Today and Tomorrow
  • Cyclicality and profitability
  • Monitoring the Industry
• feed stocks
  • Refinery Reactions as a source of Petrochemicals
  • FCC Cracking
  • Steam Cracking
  • Reforming
  • Intermediates production
• Natural, Shale and Stranded Gas
  • Sources of Gas
  • Supply and demand
  • Costs and pricing
  • The C1 Value Chain and derivatives
• Olefin Economics
  • Steam Cracker Margins
• Petrochemical Economics
  • Market Value Chains, Investment decisions
  • Economy of Scale
  • Industry Cost Curves, Cash margin Index
• Feedstock costs and their impact on ethylene cost
• Differences in costs and margins between producing regions
• The dynamics of petrochemical feedstock
• Refining and gas separation
• Olefins – Costs, Margins, Consumption and Investment
• An introduction to Polyolefin
• Aromatics Sources, Business and Technologies
  • Sources of aromatics
  • Supply and demand
  • Costs and pricing
  • Styrene – routes to manufacture
• Ethylene and Propylene Fundamentals 
• Technology and Economics of Olefins
  • Supply/demand balance
  • Regional comparisons
  • feed stocks, plant design, catalyst options, operating philosophy and conditions
• The business of Ethylene
• feed stocks to Ethylene
• Detailed investigation of major Ethylene Derivatives
• The Future for Ethylene
• Propylene
  • Propylene to Polymers - C3+ Chemicals and Processes
  • Process and technology licensees, business dynamics, value chains
  • Commercial routes to C3, C4 blockbuster chemicals
• The business of Propylene
• How the Propylene shortage was fixed
• Detail of propylene derivatives   
• What the future holds
• C4 Derivatives & Introduction to Aromatics 
• Butylene and Butadiene Fundamentals
  • What are C4 molecules
  • How are they made and separated?
  • What they are used for
  • Business Structure
  • What the future holds
• Aromatics
  • Aromatics Sources, Business and Technologies
  • Value chains, Routes into Polymers, Styrene production routes
    • The Aromatics business
    • Sources and production methods
    • Focus on Benzene Toluene and Xylene
    • Markets and Applications
• Case Study - PX and PTA - Market Economics & Drivers
• Sustainable Development
  • What is sustainability and Green Chemistry?
  • Review of potential bio-feed stocks
  • Is BTL realistic for fuel and chemical production?
  • Discussion Forum - Industrial Catalysis for Petrochemicals
  • Catalyst Basics
  • What catalyst to choose
  • Catalyst Suppliers and manufacturing methodology
  • Commercial and technical Catalyst management
• The Polymers Business and Course Conclusions 
  • How Polymers are Manufactured
  • The Polymer Tree
  • Commercial outlook for Polymers
  • Polymer production and chemistry
  • PE and PP technologies
  • Synthetic versus Natural Polymers
  • Plastics: what are they and how are they made
  • Methods of manufacture
  • Polymer types
  • Key properties
  • Polymer Markets and Applications
• Polyethylene Fundamentals
  • LDPE, HDPE and LLDPE, what are they
  • How they are made
  • What they are used for
  • Margins and consumption
  • Business Structure
• Polypropylene Fundamentals
  • What is polypropylene
  • How is it made
  • What it is used for
  • Margins and consumption
  • Business Structure
  • What the future holds
• Polymers to Products
  • The properties of finished products
  • The role of the Processor
  • Markets and Applications
  • Green Polyolefin, towards a sustainable future with Polymers.

Who can benefit?

• Sales personnel with a petrochemical portfolio
• Process engineers
• Industrial chemists
• Market Analysts
• Chemical plants Professionals
• Petrochemicals & refinery Professionals
• Business development Professionals
• Researchers needing more commercial background