August 2013 - Succesful start up of Emery-Erca alkoxylation plant
A new Alkoxylation Plant has been successfully started-up in Moerdijk (the Netherlands) during the last February for a joint venture company owned by Emery Oleochemicals and the Italian ERCA Group.
The plant, with a capacity of about 45,000 tons/year, has been realized EPCM and it is based on the Desmet-Ballestra’s new “Enhanced Loop Reactor”, the most advanced technology for alkoxylation processes.
Thanks to the newly conceived double acting gas-liquid mass transfer, the new “Enhanced Loop Reactor” has the following outstanding advantages with respect to the other technologies available on the market :
- Higher reaction rates
- Higher production flexibility
- Lower by-products formation
- Higher safety, crucial for the Alkoxylation Plants
The high flexibility of the plant allows the production of almost all the specialties in the field of non-ionic surfactants and other EO/PO derivatives.