Phthalic Anhydride-An Update

Published September 2022

The global capacity for phthalic anhydride (PA) is forecast to grow at an average rate of about 0.3% per year during 2020–25. While 50% of the PA produced worldwide is consumed in making phthalate plasticizers, the construction, marine, and transportation industries are some of the major markets for PA. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic briefly disrupting the PA market, an increase in the demand from industries such as plastics, furniture, paints, and coatings is expected to set the course for the PA market in the upcoming years.

PEP’s last report on PA was published in 1998, PEP Report 34B Phthalic Anhydride (October 1998). Since then, the PA manufacturing process has undergone several technological changes and improvements that we will cover in this review. Some of these changes include multilayered catalyst systems, post-reactor, higher ortho-xylene (o-xylene) loading, reactor safety enhancement, and larger plant capacities.

This PEP review provides a comprehensive techno-economic assessment of a generic PA process produced from o-xylene. The production economics assessment in this review is for a plant on a US Gulf Coast location, with an annual capacity of 130,000 metric tons (286.6 million pounds a year) of PA. An interactive iPEP Navigator module (an Excel-based computer costing model developed by S&P Global) is also attached with this report, which provides a snapshot of the process economics and allows the user to select the units and the global regions of interest.