Polypropylene Markets Strike Back!!

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 into the world, all aspects of life are affected. Everything includes Economic activities, Agricultures, Energy & Industries, Transportations, and Human health. We as engineers, students, lecturers, bankers, and everyone across the globe felt the impacts badly. Those who lost their loved ones are suffering. Every bit of Earth’s system is changing.

I have successfully delivered a story as my academic project to my Professor this week. And You shall hear it too.

We all know that this pandemic had taken down the U.S. oil price below zero in April 2020. The Oil demand as usually used to powering vehicle drops significantly since all the transportation cut short. Every worker, student, and citizen should stay at their own house to avoid human contact with each other.

In the industry sector, itself, such as fuels, aviation turbines, plastic packaging had low demand in their markets. Most workers need to be cut and thousands have lost their job. Everyone thinks these major changes are horrible. But I can assure you that this is not the end of the world. Not yet. Here’s why…

The ICIS Report by John Richardson focused on Polypropylene(PP) markets stated, that PP is still one of the promising commodities to be produced globally during this pandemic era. Below, you can see a chart that tells you the demand for PP in end-use markets.

From the above chart, we know that 2020’s demand for PP in construction materials has fallen about 3% from 2019’s demand. This phenomena’s followed by the end-user demand in the automotive industry and equipment manufacturing.

Contrary to previous phenomena, the demand for medical appliances is increasing followed by packaging and other-mentioned in the chart. This is a very great opportunity for us the people, or even maybe Leading Companies who are already in the PP production global market to rebuild the economic stability since the pandemic strikes in early 2020.

Here’s a quiz. Why all of the sudden did the medical appliances’ demand increase?

To answer this, I’m gonna send you these pictures.

Such appliances like syringes are used in taking blood samples to determine whether you’re infected by Covid-19 or not. (In Indonesia, this was used in every clinic or hospital when Rapid antibody-method are widely known before WHO announces SWAB Antigen-method to determine covid-19 infection to patients). Disposable gowns used by nurses & doctors to take care of severely infected patients like in Wisma Atlet Kemayoran, Jakarta also come from PP derivates product.

I could make a list of PP products in medical uses. But you got the Idea, right?

Aside from the medical application, The packaging of your food though is also made from PP. I know how life can be boring during the endless lockdowns like how you missed hanging out at cafes, trying new viral foods, or maybe spending your last pennies at Warmindo(Warung Makan Indomie) when you’re out of cash.

The good thing during this lockdown is you may now be ordering your food from home with a single click on your gadget. I bet you could find these food containers from your favorite delivery services, isn’t it? Thanks to Go Food, Grab Food, even there’s Shopee Food nowadays.

Now that you have known your surrounding products might came from PP derivates, I want to tell you some interesting facts!!

• Polypropylene is one of the polymer kinds which is light and easily formed. It is hardly corroded and has great chemical resistance.
• PP has a high melt point around 170?oC.
• It is mainly used as raw materials in plastic industries.

The polymerization process is the key to convert propylene monomers into polypropylenes. Propylene as the main ingredient in this process comes from crude oil derivates. Follows are how propylene is produced:

• It is a by-product of gasoline production from crude oil
• It might also exist as a co-product with ethylene from the naphtha cracking process
• It exists as a product from propane/butene cracking.

You may now wondering, why is polymerization process could convert monomers into polymers?

To simplify, They NEED helps.

Here’s an illustration:

The C3/propylenes are reacted with some catalysts and gas donors (Hydrogen) to form a polymer. And the process continues until there is no active site left in the chains.

The catalysts, helping the process are Titanium Tetrachloride(TiCl4) and Triethylaluminium(Al(C2H5)3). This TiCl4 catalyst was discovered by Noble Prize Awardees (K. Ziegler & Giulio Natta) in 1954.

Did you enjoying Superheroes franchise like Marvel? This 2021 release of Loki: The Serial is telling us there are variants of ourselves in so many possible parallel universe.

Slight similarities to that story from Marvel, Polypropylenes MIGHT have variants too. I wouldn’t call it a variant, but a structure classification instead. When a polymer is formed from the Ziegler-Natta Process, It can be found that there are 3 kinds of possible crystal structures as follows:

• Isotactic PP (iPP)
• Syndiotactic PP (sPP)
• Atactic PP (aPP)

These three structures will define their tacticity properties. Simply put, the tacticity of the atoms will influence how successfully they can pack together. Isotactic or syndiotactic polymers can crystallize into crystalline or semicrystalline networks, and crystals have regular patterns. As a result of the random arrangement of the repeating units of atactic polymers, they are unable to form crystals and instead form amorphous glasses.

The intermolecular forces of attraction are at their strongest when polymers have a crystalline structure, resulting in a denser and stronger polymer. Polypropylene is an excellent example of this. Atactic polypropylene is soft and sticky, making it ideal for adhesive production. Isotactic polypropylene, on the other hand, may form stronger crystals and be used in structural applications.

In the polymer synthesis business, tacticity and crystallinity are critical. The tacticity of the polymer produced will be affected by various polymerization circumstances such as temperature and solvent selection. It is necessary to initially produce isotactic or syndiotactic polymers if a high-strength polymer is desired. Tactical polymers must be used instead of rubber if the rubber is necessary. As a result, the polymerization conditions must be tailored to the specific type of polymer required.

To summarize, by examining tacticity and crystallinity, we can observe how stereochemistry influences the characteristics of polymers. As a result, when designing polymers for usage, such considerations are critical.

You might be thinking already.. If I have known the making process. So what? Do I have to react those materials in a lab repeatedly in order to sell it?

Slow down, buddy! Our dear scientist’s great discoveries need to be spiced up. I’d want to share with you the wonders of engineering. Engineering is the superhero we’ve all been waiting for to save us when things like this became necessary — everyone needs it.

Engineering brings ideas to life, assisting in the shaping of human civilization up to the present day and meeting our requirements to enhance our lives.

There are three ways to make PP into mass production. Those are:

• Slurry Processing
• Bulk/Liquid Processing
• Gas Processing

Propylene-Hexane dilution, alkyl aluminum, and titanium trioxide are used as catalysts in slurry processing. This type of method necessitates a longer preparation procedure that yields atactic isomers that are very easy to separate from the polymer in the end. The catalyst concentration of 300 ppm is still associated with the final product polymer in the end process. The bulk processing technology is developed to prevent such a longer time by minimizing the dilution of propylene and hexane.

The discovery of titanium trichloride and magnesium dichloride in the 1970s was one of many initiatives to improve the polymerization process. Because of its performance and stereospecificity, it eliminates the need for catalysts and atactic polymers removal. The development of research continues to promote the manufacturing of PP in various grades and properties. The introduction of the gas-phase reaction with stirring (fluidized bed process), which yields 95% PP purity, has also made the polymerization process more cost-effective. Another advantage of the PP polymerization process’ development is that the final polymer product may be recovered as PP powder.

Fyi, the current major players of PP production in Indonesia are Pertamina, Polytama Propindo, and Chandra Asri Petrochemical.

Common Industrial Scale of PP Manufacturing

In general, propylene(raw material from crude oil) is reacted in the CSTR reactor with a catalyst, such as Ti and aluminum halide, at a temperature of 60 oC -70 oC and a pressure of 1–2 MPa. After the reaction product is separated from the catalyst and the polymer and catalyst mixture in the flash chamber is stirred evenly, the unreacted monomer will be recycled. The polymer and catalyst mixture is then put through a centrifugal separator, where the catalyst and PP polymer are separated. The active site of the spent catalyst is then regenerated so that it can be used in the next polymerization operation.

The Produced PPs are then extruded into pellets with high temperatures around 240 oC resulting in this picture.

Now, you’ve learned everything there is to know about PP, from its discovery to its industrial mass manufacture. I’m a little jaded, but I have something else that will Delight you!

Back into John’s report from ICIS, there were ups and downs of PP demand in various end-user markets. Supporting the argument, A depth market analysis and review from Lucintel in 2021 implies that there is a possible promising scenario for investors to build and revamp the business of PP production. The Recovery of the PP industry after this pandemic is predicted to reach around $13.9 Billion in 2026 with a CAGR(Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 5.2% from 2021 to 2026. The expanding need for light automobiles, as well as the demand for PP polymers in the materials, electronics, and medical appliances industries, are the key drivers of this.

So, What do you have in mind? Should the major players in Indonesia be concerned about this?

Disclaimers:

• Any mistakes in this story are mine
• All publications, articles, papers, reports, and individuals to whom I refer are credited.
• Written with various references-available on request

This post serves as a recap of my original paper. If you need further reading on this matter, simply notify me at [email protected].