Bisphenol A

1、 Bisphenol A is the common name of 2,2-bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) propane, also known as bisphenol propane It is synthesized from phenol and acetone in acid medium It is an important raw material for epoxy resin, polycarbonate, polysulfone, polyarylate, phenolic resin, unsaturated polyester resin, flame retardant and other products Bisphenol A is basically divided into two grades: polycarbonate grade and epoxy grade, and its quality index is shown in Table 1 Table 1 quality index of bisphenol A refers to the powder, flake and granular white crystal with the appearance of polycarbonate grade, epoxy grade, crystallization temperature of ℃≥ 156 ≤ 154, chroma (platinum cobalt) No (25 g of sample dissolved in 35 ml of methanol ≤ 25 ≤ 50, iron content of PPM ≤ 1 The industrial production of bisphenol A was started in 1923 by Albert company in Germany Up to now, the production of bisphenol A in the world has reached 1.45 million tons The production of bisphenol A in China has developed with the development of epoxy resin During the period of 1958-1980, all the factories producing epoxy resin produced bisphenol A by themselves Since most of the production plants adopt sulfuric acid method (old sulfuric acid method and improved sulfuric acid method), the bisphenol A produced cannot reach the quality index shown in Table 1, so there is basically no domestic commercial bisphenol A in the market At that time, bisphenol A manufacturers with large production capacity were: Wuxi resin factory, Shanghai resin factory, Yueyang epoxy resin factory, Guangzhou nanzhong plastic factory, Liaoning Gaixian chemical second factory, Qingdao pesticide factory, Suzhou resin factory, Nantong oil chemical factory, Wuxi resin factory, Xuzhou jiawangshuzhi factory, Changsha resin factory, Zhaoqing organic chemical factory, Foshan chemical factory, Jiangxi Qianwei chemical factory, Da Lian paint factory (ion process), Shanghai dyeing and chemical plant (ion process), Tianjin organic chemical plant (hydrogen chloride process) Although the total production capacity of these plants at that time was about 7000 tons / year, the annual output of bisphenol A was only about 3000 tons, just to meet the production needs of their own epoxy resin or polycarbonate, there was no commercial supply of bisphenol A In order to produce high-quality resin, less than 1000 tons of bisphenol A were imported every year by using foreign exchange With the deepening of reform and opening up, a large number of township enterprises have produced epoxy resin since 1980, and the import of bisphenol A has increased year by year By 1994, incomplete statistics showed that the import of bisphenol A was about 20000 tons 2、 At present, the quality of bisphenol A produced by sulfuric acid Pharaoh process is not high in China, while the production of polycarbonate requires the production of polycarbonate grade bisphenol A In addition, users also put forward higher requirements for the quality of epoxy resin, so they need high-quality bisphenol A to produce high-quality epoxy resin For this reason, Wuxi resin factory, Shanghai resin factory, Shanghai No.2 dyeing and chemical factory and Dalian paint factory successively carried out the experiment of bisphenol a production by ion method; Tianjin No.2 organic chemical factory also carried out the industrial experiment of hydrogen chloride method; Northeast Normal University, Tianjin Institute of synthetic materials and other colleges and universities and research institutes also carried out the research of new technology These work laid a solid foundation for technology introduction in the late 1980s and early 1990s In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wuxi resin plant and Baling Petrochemical Company introduced the technology and key equipment of bisphenol a production by ion method and hydrogen chloride method respectively Among them, the annual output of 10000 tons of ion production BPA device introduced by Wuxi resin factory was successfully tested in July 1995 and put into production In that year, nearly 2800 tons of high-quality BPA were put on the market, which suppressed the soaring trend of BPA price in the market at that time In 1996, 6000-8000 tons of BPA will be put on the market in Wuxi resin plant For example, in 1996, Yueyang Baling Petrochemical Company put into operation its annual output of 5000 tons of BPA plant, which will further alleviate the shortage of BPA supply Because there are few manufacturers producing high-quality bisphenol A in China, and the products using bisphenol A, such as epoxy resin, polycarbonate, unsaturated polyester resin, phenolic resin and flame retardant, are developing rapidly, it is estimated that the amount of domestic bisphenol A in 1996 still can not meet the market demand, and it still needs to import about 10000 tons of bisphenol A 3、 Application status in China, bisphenol A is mainly used in the production of epoxy resin, a small amount is used in the production of polycarbonate, while the amount of unsaturated resin, phenolic resin, polyaryl ester and flame retardant is very small In 1994, the consumption of bisphenol A in the production of epoxy resin and polycarbonate was about 20000 tons and 3000 tons respectively In 1995, the consumption of bisphenol A in epoxy resin was about 13000 tons, and that in polycarbonate was about 3600 tons It is estimated that in 1996, the demand of bisphenol A for epoxy resin is 25-27000 tons, and that for polycarbonate is about 4-04200 tons Therefore, in order to meet the production needs of epoxy resin and polycarbonate, it is necessary to import nearly 20000 tons of bisphenol A in 1996 In terms of the use of bisphenol A, the development of flame retardants, especially tetrabromobisphenol A and brominated epoxy resin is very fast, and the amount of bisphenol A is increasing year by year Taking Wuxi resin factory as an example, the output of brominated epoxy resin was 22 tons in 1994, 100 tons in 1995, and 360 tons in 1996 In recent years, it has been growing by 200% At present, the scale of the plants producing TBSA is not large (the annual production capacity of several plants is only 500 tons), and the process is relatively backward, which causes serious environmental pollution However, from the perspective of development, this product has great vitality The development of this product can be properly considered in the conditional plants (it is better to carry out reconstruction and expansion in the original TBSA production unit) 4、 It can be seen from the above problems and suggestions that the production of bisphenol A in China is far behind the production requirements of epoxy resin, let alone providing enough raw materials for polycarbonate Therefore, China should pay attention to the development of bisphenol a production and establish 2-3 modern and large-scale bisphenol A units to meet the needs of production development It is predicted that in 2000, the production of epoxy resin in China will reach about 80000 tons, about 50000 tons of bisphenol A will be needed If the demand of bisphenol A for flame retardant, polycarbonate and other products is added, at least 70000-80000 tons of bisphenol A will be needed every year Therefore, it is suggested that in addition to the digestion and absorption of Wuxi and Yueyang, two or three petrochemical plants with better conditions should be established to develop the production of bisphenol A and strive to enter the international market while meeting the domestic market demand.