Hydrogenated Petroleum Resins Latest Industry News

Hydrogenated petroleum resins are light-colored or colorless high-end petroleum resins obtained by catalytic hydrogenation of unsaturated bonds in petroleum resins as the base raw material. In addition to lighter color and no special odor, they also have improved weatherability, stability and compatibility compared with unhydrogenated petroleum resins. According to the different production materials and processes, hydrogenated petroleum resins can be generally classified into C5 hydrogenated petroleum resins, hot poly C9 hydrogenated petroleum resins, cold poly C9 hydrogenated petroleum resins and DCPD hydrogenated resins.

By the end of 2018, the total capacity of domestic hydrogenated petroleum resin reached 213,000 tons and the total output reached 136,000 tons, and the actual utilization rate of domestic hydrogenated petroleum resin capacity was around 80% in 2018 as the 55,000-ton unit of Ganges River Materials was put into production only in late September.

Among all types of domestic hydrogenated petroleum resin, DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin is the most mature product in production.In 2018, the supply of DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin dominated with the output of 62,500 tons, accounting for 46% of the total supply of domestic hydrogenated petroleum resin, which is the product type with the highest market share. Meanwhile, due to the large supply of DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin products, it has a price inversion phenomenon, and the market price is lower than C5 hydrogenated petroleum resin and C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin.

In 2018, the output of C5 hydrogenated petroleum resin and C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin were 48,500 tons and 25,000 tons respectively, with market shares of 36% and 18% respectively. It is expected that the market share of DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin will decrease to a certain extent and the market share of C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin will increase substantially after the full release of the production capacity of C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin of Ganges River Materials in 2019.

In terms of production capacity, after the 55,000-ton C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin plant of Ganges River Materials was put into operation in September 2018, the domestic production capacity of C5 hydrogenated petroleum resin, C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin and DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin will account for 27%, 40% and 33% respectively. 

In the previous period, due to the dark color, many impurities and large relative molecular weight of C9 petroleum resin, it is easy to produce gel in the polymerization process, and as a raw material, it has harsh requirements on catalyst and reaction device of hydrogenation reaction process. Before the breakthrough of Henghe materials, only Hebei Qiming has 15,000 tons capacity in China, and there are fewer product grades because the technology is still in the development stage.

As for the production process, domestic enterprises generally choose cold poly petroleum resin as the raw material for hydrogenation, and only one enterprise has the ability to use hot poly C9 petroleum resin as the raw material to produce hydrogenated petroleum resin. In the polymerization section, the polymerization catalyst is generally AlCI3 or BF3. In the hydrogenation section, the domestically applied processes are mainly divided into loop reactor, fixed bed and reactor. 

Due to the presence of double bonds or aromatics in the structure of petroleum resin and the presence of halides, hydrogen sulfide and gums, hydrogenation is difficult, so the activity and selectivity of catalysts have a crucial impact on the product performance. C5 hydrogenated petroleum resin generally selects Pd as catalyst, while C9 hydrogenated petroleum resin and DCPD hydrogenated petroleum resin select Ni as hydrogenation catalyst.