Yantai University has made significant breakthroughs in butene enrichment technology, which is now being applied domestically and will soon go global. According to a report from the university on September 24, the technology they developed is highly advanced with strong market potential. Compared to imported methods, it offers a simpler process, lower energy consumption, higher product purity and yield, reduced solvent usage, and greater operational flexibility without the need for frequent regeneration. Currently, nine companies across China have successfully implemented the technology, achieving promising results.
In addition to the success of butene enrichment, Yantai University has also made progress in purifying butylene-containing exhaust gases, developing a specialized defoamer for butene upgrading, and producing N-formylmorpholine, a key solvent used in the process. These innovations have further strengthened the commercial viability of the technology.
Butene enrichment technology involves extractive distillation to separate high-purity n-butene from carbon tetrachloride liquid gas, followed by hydration and dehydrogenation to produce methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), a crucial chemical raw material with a growing market demand.
With advancements in petroleum processing, the separation of n-butene from carbon tetrachlorides—by-products of steam and catalytic cracking—has gained more attention. To improve separation efficiency and reduce energy use, Yantai University's Butene Extraction Group has been conducting research and development since 1992, ultimately creating an independent, proprietary butene enrichment technology. This system was scaled up over 10,000 times in the lab without intermediate testing and has been directly deployed in industrial production, earning five national invention patents.
The technology was first applied in 2002 by Xinjiang Tianli Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. to build a 30,000-ton/year MEK plant. Since then, multiple domestic companies, including Jiangsu Lingguang, CNPC Harbin Petrochemical, and Lanzhou Petrochemical, have adopted the technology. Their equipment has passed evaluations and received positive feedback from industry experts, who consider it among the most efficient and comprehensive production systems available globally.
To further support the industrial application of the technology, Yantai University collaborated with the Lanzhou Petrochemical Research Institute to develop butene hydration tail gas purification and special defoamer technologies, which were later transferred to Taizhou Donglian Chemical. In parallel, the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Commission and Yantai’s Science and Technology Bureau funded a project to develop N-formylmorpholine production technology, which is compatible with the enrichment process. Yantai HongTEDA Chemical Co., Ltd. has since built a 500-ton/year production line and is now operating it commercially.
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