Isononyl alcohol is a key raw material for the popular plasticizer DINP and its domestic production line is being accelerated.

Isonononyl alcohol is an organic chemical raw material with the chemical formula C9H20O. It appears as a colorless and transparent liquid, insoluble in water, and soluble in ethanol and ether. The production methods of isononyl alcohol are diverse, mainly including hydroformylation method, ExxonMobil method, Oxeno method, Johnson Matthey method, BASF high-pressure oxo synthesis of isononanol process, etc. Among them, hydroformylation is currently the main method for industrial preparation of isononanol. It refers to the method of preparing isononanol using octene as raw material through reactor reaction, catalyst separation, concentration, pre-activation and other steps.

Isononanol is an important raw material for DINP (diisononyl phthalate). DINP (diisononyl phthalate) is a plasticizer with excellent performance and wide application. It is mainly prepared by the esterification reaction of phthalic anhydride and isononyl alcohol. It has high low temperature resistance, strong aging resistance and transparency. It has the advantages of high, low volatility, good environmental protection and high impregnation durability. Compared with the common plasticizer DOP (dioctyl phthalate) currently on the market, its overall performance is better.

At present, DINP has been widely used in wires, cables, cars, floors, construction, toy films, PVC leather, PVC floor leather, shoe materials, edge banding, wigs, rubber, coatings and other fields. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of national living standards and the rising trend of green development in the chemical industry, the application field of DINP has developed rapidly and the market scale has continued to expand, which in turn has driven the increasing market demand for isononyl alcohol. According to the “Research Report on Investment Potential and Development Prospects of China’s Isononyl Alcohol Industry from 2022 to 2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 The annual domestic market demand for isononyl alcohol has reached 312,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.

Globally, the main manufacturers of isononyl alcohol include ExxonMobil Chemical of the United States, Evonik of Germany, BASF of Germany, Kyowa Co., Ltd. of Japan, and Nanya Plastics Industry of Taiwan, China. The technical barriers to the production of isononyl alcohol are high, the number of companies in this field is relatively small globally, and the market competition pattern is relatively stable. The current global production capacity of isononyl alcohol is approximately 1.5 million tons/year.

In the domestic market, due to high technical barriers, my country’s isononol industry started late. The first domestic isononol production device appeared in 2015, a 180,000-ton/year isononol joint venture between Maoming Petrochemical and BASF. The alcohol device has filled the gap in the industry and promoted the continuous improvement of domestic self-sufficiency of isononyl alcohol, but the core technology has not yet been broken through.

Industry analysts personnel said that in recent years, driven by the continued growth in market demand for isononyl alcohol, local companies Continuously rising, in April 2020, the technology license agreement for the 200,000-ton isononyl alcohol project of Qixiang Tengda Chemical, the second domestic isononyl alcohol production unit, was signed. It will be completed and put into operation in 2023. After completion, it will become the largest isononyl alcohol production line in China. In the future, under the background of accelerating the construction of the largest isononyl alcohol production facility in China, my country’s isononyl alcohol market is expected to usher in a golden period of rapid development, and the level of localization is expected to be significantly improved.