25-03-2014

Axens, Total and IFPEN launch Atol™,

Atol™ is a technology for the most profitable production of polymer grade bio-ethylene by dehydration of 1G and 2G-renewable ethanol. The bio-ethylene produced can be integrated in existing downstream polymerization installations such as polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polyethyleneteraphthalate (PET), polyvinylchloride (PVC) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) without need for modifications.

Atol™ is the result of a partnership between Total, IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and its affiliate Axens that started in 2011. Within this cooperation, Total developed a high performance catalyst formulation at its research Center in Feluy, Belgium, IFPEN scaled up catalyst performance within a heat recovery innovative process while Axens industrialized the catalyst formulation and finalized the process scheme with particular focus on energy-efficiency. Total and IFPEN are the co-owners of the technology and Axens is now in charge of commercializing Atol™ by providing all process licensing related services and catalyst manufacturing.

Atol™ is believed to be the most advanced dehydration technology and features the highest profitability as a result of:
* Lower Capex by simplified product purification brought on by the outstanding performances of the ATO 201 catalyst which exhibits a high activity and selectivity towards ethylene
* The robustness of its catalyst which copes with any variation in feedstock quality
* The highly integrated process scheme which greatly reduces operating costs
* Significant potential to be integrated with both upstream ethanol production and downstream ethylene conversion

Atol™  is the first of a series of technologies, for the production of other olefinic monomers by processing bio-derived higher alcohols, to be developed in parallel based on Atol’s technology platform.

For more information, please visit www.axens.net