In December 2019, the facility for single-step butane dehydrogenation (SBD) at the Butyl Rubber Plant of Nizhnekamskneftekhim marked the 45th anniversary since its establishment. During this period, divinyl and butane-butylene fractions were produced in the volume of more than 2.7 million tonnes each.
For a company, the SBD facility is an important source of raw materials that manufactures the main products necessary for the production of NdBR, lithium based BR, and other rubbers.
SBD facility is a unique large-capacity unit with certain process features. The facility consists of two workshops, SBD-2 and SBD-10, manufacturing the largest volumes of divinyl, up to 320 tonnes per day.
As part of major overhaul in 2019, a large-scale equipment replacement was carried out at SBD units. Some process equipment was retrofitted, including steam turbines and compressors, furnace coils and recovery boiler tubes were replaced, the catalyst was reloaded on eight dehydrogenation reactors at the SBD-2 workshop.
Plant employees also implement environmental and energy conservation measures, work on improving technologies and equipment. Compared with the design values, the volume of substances burned in a flare unit has been significantly reduced.
Based on information by Nizhnekamskneftekhim press service