Chemical profile butyl acrylate

USES

Butyl acrylate is used chiefly to make acrylic polymers and polyethylene (PE). It is used in formulating paints and dispersions for paints, inks, and adhesives. Other uses include cleaning products, antioxidant agents, amphoteric surfactants, aqueous resins, elastomers and dispersions for textiles and papers.

 In 2013, 43.7% of global demand came from coatings, 17% as a comonomer in PE, 17% in adhesives, 10% in textiles, 4.7% in pulp/paper, 3.8% in polish/stabilizer, 2% in printing/dying, and 1.8% other uses.

SUPPLY/DEMAND

 Global Capacity stood at 3.45m tons/year in 2013, according to TranTech estimates, with 1.89m tons/year in Asia Pacific, 694,000 tons/year in the US, 450,000 tons/year in Western Europe, 80,000 tons/year in Africa, 71,000 tons/ year in Eastern Europe and 60,000 tons/year in Latin America.

 Asia Pacific is the largest consumer at about 1.44m tons/year, followed by the US at 476,000 tons/year and 446,000 tons/year in Western Europe. Japan, Latin America, Asia/Middle East, Eastern Europe consumes 131,000 tons/year, 120,000 tons/year and 80,000 tons/year, respectively. The demand in other regions was below 60,000 tons/year each. China had capacity and output of 852,000 tons/year and 733,000 tons/year, with demand exceeding 1.2m tons/year.

TECHNOLOGY

Butyl acrylate is made from ester grade acrylic acid and small excess of butanol at elevated temperatures extracted at a yield of 94-97%. It is usually integrated to an acrylic acid facility. All the processes are based on the same principle of esterification; there are different catalysts, conditions and systems with variation in catalyst type, recycle of alcohol and quality of finished product. Available technology is limited. Most plants use Nippon Shokubai process and another licensor is Mitsubishi. BASF, however, the largest scale manufacture of acrylic acid and esters, does not release its technology.

OUTLOOK

Global demand growth is forecast at 5.5%/year to 2018. Regionally, consumption will rise 8%/year in Asia Pacific, 5%/year in Asia/Middle East, 1%/year in Japan and about 3%/year for rest of the world.