The Denizli Tosunlar ORC geothermal power plant in Turkey received the Top Plant award in the Renewable energy project domain. Italian company Exergy S.p.A. built it for its client Akça Enerji in 2015.

The Power Magazine awarded the Denizli Tosunlar ORC geothermal plant as a part of its “Power Awards” competition, and announced its decision in the December issue of the magazine. A jury comprised of the U.S.-based magazine’s editors selected this 4 MW facility as the best in the Renewable projects category. Other categories include Natural gas-fired, Coal-fired, and Nuclear projects. The winner in each of the category was chosen for demonstrating an innovative design and engineering upgrades, for producing power more reliably or economically than comparable plants or demonstrating a new generation or environmental controls technology.

The Turkish branch of Exergy built this organic Rankine cycle (ORC) geothermal plant for its client Akça Enerji. It is the world’s first geothermal power plant with two-pressure-level cycle on a single-disk turbine. The Denizli Tosunlar has been operational since June 2015. It has already received an award in February 2016 – the key European Geothermal Innovation Award from the European Geothermal Energy Council for innovation demonstrated in this geothermal plant.

“We are very proud to have received a second award this year for our Denizli Tosunlar power plant. This repeated recognition gives evidence of the technological breakthrough this plant represents and rewards the commitment and the effort that Exergy put into R&D activities to keep us at the forefront of innovation by achieving new, smarter and more efficient applications of our technology. We are constantly working on further advances in technology for the ORC market in order continue to evolve and sustain clean power generation,” said Claudio Spadacini, chief executive officer of Exergy, which appear to have achieved considerable success in Turkey in the last several years.

Organic Rankine cycle usually uses low boiling point organic working fluids, such as atmospheric ethane, n-Pentane and Isopentane, etc. the medium and low-temperature geothermal fluid is used to exchange heat with low boiling point organic working fluid to make the latter evaporate and generate steam with high pressure to drive steam turbine to do power generation.

Organic – pentane, propane, ammonia and coolants

A blowing agent is a substance which is capable of producing a cellular structure via a foaming process in a variety of materials that undergo hardening or phase transition, such as polymers, plastics, and metals. They are typically applied when the blown material is in a liquid stage. The cellular structure in a matrix reduces density, increasing thermal and acoustic insulation, while increasing relative stiffness of the original polymer.

Blowing agents are additives used in the manufacture of foamed plastics, which have the advantage of lightness, contribute to material and cost savings, and are distinguished by the fact that they are thermally insulating. Blowing agents usually create fine and regular cellular structures during polymer processing.

Blowing agent plays a fundamental role in the production of polystyrene (PS), polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulations foam. A small quantity of blowing agent indirectly provides important performance characteristics to these foams as great thermal insulation properties.

The global warming potential (GWP) of the blowing agents used to manufacture insulation products like polyiso insulation can be an important consideration when assessing each product’s environmental impacts. Blowing agents function to increase the final thermal resistance or R-value of foam insulation, and also help to facilitate the manufacturing or foaming process.  

Manufacturers of laminated insulation products in North America use #pentane or #pentane #blends in their production processes. Pentane is a hydrocarbon with zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and low-GWP. Manufacturers have utilized pentane technologies in product formulations for over 20 years.

Pentane has a GWP value of less than 10, which means that insulation products produced and sold in North America comply with climate regulations that limit the manufacture or installation of products produced with higher-GWP substances (including products manufactured with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) or blends thereof). Therefore, architects and contractors can continue to specify insulation products manufactured by PIMA members with confidence in both the industry’s performance and environmental scorecard.

Blowing agents can allow the polymer processor to achieve weight reduction and use less raw materials by introducing a finely controlled cell structure within the polymer. With the endothermic blowing agents, as part of their functionality, they will absorb heat energy from their surroundings.

Foam blowing agents encompass a wide variety of applications including refrigerators, buildings, automobiles, furniture, packaging, and many more. The blowing agent is used to create a cellular structure from liquid plastic resin, and in the case of foam used for insulation it functions as an insulating component of the foam.

When it comes to blowing agents, a controlled foam structure makes your production process go a lot smoother

Not only do blowing agents expand up to 60 times in volume, they also provide:

• highly controlled foaming
• closed, uniform cell structure
• guards against water penetration
• create internal pressure to combat shrinkage.

Blowing agent plays a fundamental role in the production of polystyrene (PS), polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulations foam. A small quantity of blowing agent indirectly provides important performance characteristics to these foams as great thermal insulation properties.

Blowing agents can allow the polymer processor to achieve weight reduction and use less raw materials by introducing a finely controlled cell structure within the polymer. With the endothermic blowing agents, as part of their functionality, they will absorb heat energy from their surroundings.

What is EPS

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used kinds of plastic. It is a polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry. Polystyrene is a thermoplastic substance, it melts if heated and becomes solid again when cool.

Polystyrene is most commonly found in three forms. Rigid Polystyrene (PS), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and Extruded Polystyrene (XPS).

Rigid polystyrene has many applications including disposable cutlery, cd cases, video/casette casings, components for plastic model toys as well as some margarine and yoghurt containers.  Extruded polystyrene foam has good insulating properties making it important as a non-structural construction material.  XPS is sold under the trademark Styrofoam by Dow Chemical, however this term is often used informally for other foamed polystyrene products.

How to produce foam?

Expandable Polystyrene / EPS:

This is PS Foam that uses Pentane gas (C5H12) as the blowing agent. During the material production process called “Polymerisation” the polystyrene resin granules impregnated with the blowing agent. EPS production processes begin in the pre-expansion process where the EPS bead will expand by the heat of steam usually 50 times in volume. The next step in the process is moulding process where expanded foam bead will be heated again with steam then they expand further until they fuse together, forming as foam products.

There are mainly 2 types of EPS moulding machines;

• Shape moulding machine that produce various shapes of foam products according to the molds such as icebox, helmet and packaging foam.
• Block moulding machine that produce block foam and sheet foam Expanded EPS foam bead contains 98% air per volume, only 2% is plastic. This make EPS foam very light weight, has low thermal conductivity because air is the best insulation, high compressive strength and excellent shock absorption. These properties make EPS to be ideal material for packaging and construction.

Polystyrene Paper (PSP):

This is a PS Foam which is produced by extruding process as another plastic. Production process start when put polystyrene resin pellets into the extruder that heated by electric. Foaming process occur at the end of extruder where the blowing agent, butane (C4H10) gas react with the melt plastic then become foam. The melted polystyrene foam is then extended as sheet then rolled as paper roll, that is why it is commonly known as “Polystyrene Paper”. The polystyrene foam sheet or polystyrene paper can be produced as many shape according to the mould by thermal forming process such as food tray, cups, bow, and food box.

There’s no any CFC’s in PS foam

Both EPS and PSP contain 95 -98 % air another 2-5% is polystyrene which is pure hydrocarbon. CFC’s is Chlorofluorocarbons which is totally different in its chemical structure from polystyrene. CFC’s has very low blowing point and uneasy to be maintained in EPS beads. Therefore, EPS Foam never use CFC’s at any stage of its production. The blowing agent used since EPS Foam was first introduced in 1952 by BASF  is Pentane gas which, does not contain any chlorine atoms as CFC’s. PSP Foam in the beginning used CFC’s as blowing agent. In the past two decades CFC’s are gradually phased out from plastics and refrigerator industries. PSP moulders in Thailand already use Butane (C4H10) as the blowing agent since the last 15 years. Butane gas is the gas that we use at home for cooking. The blowing agents that use in producing PS Foam are Pentane and Butane, which are pure hydrocarbon as polystyrene. They belong to the same chemical family, the paraffin series as methane, ethane, and propane gas.

How to manage the EPS foam waste

Apart from recycling by melting and compacting, there are many ways to manage the EPS waste as the followings:

• Crush in to small particle and mix with soil. Foam waste will improve ventilation in the soil, organic substances in the soil will become easier the humus.
• Mixing the crushed bead with cement to reduce the weight and increase insulation properties.
• Combustion at 1000 C with sufficient air supplies in to generate heat. Burning EPS require no any additional fuel, in fact EPS can replace the fuel normally required for combustion, l kg of EPS saves 1 kg = 1.2 – 1.4 Litre of fuel oil.

The Recycling of PS:

Since both EPS and PSP Foam are made of Polystyrene, which is thermoplastic, so that it will become again a polystyrene plastic when recycled. AMEPS members recycle both EPS and PSP Foam by first crushing into small particle then melting or compacting it. Melting can be done by heated roller, disk or screw extruders, where the regrind scraps is heated usually by electrical power for some time above the melting temperature. Compacting can be done by rotary compactors where pressure and frictional force create heat below melting temperature to soften the regrind scraps for only few seconds. This method also called “agglomeration”.PS pallet from recycled foam will be produced in various kinds of plastic products e.g. video and tape cassette and ruler. The other way to reuse EPS Foam is to mix the regrind beads with the new expanded bead for re-production in moulding process.

An integrated thermal recovery process using a solvent of a pentane or hexane or both as an additive to, or sole component of, a gravity-dominated process for recovering bitumen or heavy oil from a reservoir. A pentane-hexane specific solvent fraction is extracted at surface from a diluent stream. That pentane-hexane solvent fraction is then injected into the reservoir as part of a gravity-dominated recovery process within the reservoir, and when that solvent fraction is subsequently produced as part of the oil or bitumen blend, it is allowed to remain within the blend to enhance the subsequent blend treating and transportation steps. Meanwhile, the remainder of the diluent from which the solvent stream had been extracted is utilized at surface as a blending stream to serve as an aid in treating of produced fluids and also to serve as a means of rendering the bitumen or heavy oil stream pipelineable.

An integrated thermal recovery process using a solvent of a pentane or hexane or both as an additive to, or sole component of, a gravity-dominated process for recovering bitumen or heavy oil from a reservoir. A pentane-hexane specific solvent fraction is extracted at surface from a diluent stream.
Author: Subodh Gupta, Simon D. Gittins, Mark A. Bilozir
Cited by: 22
Publish Year: 2012

Is pentane a polar solvent?Pentane is a straight chain alkane consisting of 5 carbon atoms. It has a role as a non-polar solvent and a refrigerant. It is a volatile organic compound and an alkane.

Is pentane an alkane or alcohol?Pentane is found in alcoholic beverages. Pentane is present in hop oil. Pentane is any or one of the organic compounds with the formula C5H12. This alkane is a component of some fuels and is employed as a specialty solvent in the laboratory. Its properties are very similar to those of butane and hexane.

Is pentane an organic compound?It is a volatile organic compound and an alkane. Pentane is found in alcoholic beverages. Pentane is present in hop oil. Pentane is any or one of the organic compounds with the formula C5H12. This alkane is a component of some fuels and is employed as a specialty solvent in the laboratory.

In addition to being a component of natural gas, pentane has numerous industrial uses. Primarily, pentane is used to create a blowing agent which is then used to create a foam known as polystyrene. Polystyrene is used to make insulation materials for refrigerators and heating pipes.

Pentane is an organic compound which is a clear colourless liquid. The odour of pentane is similar to petroleum. It is less dense than the water and is insoluble in water. It is also known as quintane and n-pentane. The rotatable bond count of pentane is 2.

Molecular formula C₅H₁₂

Linear formula CH₃(CH₂)₃CH₃

The Simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES) CCCCC

Properties Of Pentane
The properties of pentane are similar to butane and hexane. Following is the table of properties of pentane:

IUPAC name pentane
Molecular formula C5H12
Molecular mass 72.151 g/mol
Melting point -130.5 to -129.1℃
Boiling point 35.9 to 36.3℃
Density 0.626 g/mL
Appearance Colourless liquid
Refractive index 1.358
Viscosity 0.240 mPa.s at 20℃

Isomers Of Pentane
There are three structural isomers of pentane and they are:

n-pentane is the first isomer which is a straight chain with a normal structure of pentane.
2-methylbutane is the second isomer which is a branched-chain structure in which one carbon atom is connected to three other carbon atoms.
2,2-dimethylpropane is the third isomer which is a branched-chain structure in the central carbon atom is connected to four other carbon atoms.
Uses Of Pentane
It is used in the production of polystyrene foam.
Isopentane which is obtained by acid-catalysed isomerisation is used in producing high-octane fuels.
It is used in geothermal power stations as a working medium in Rankine cycle.
It is also used in liquid chromatography.
At room temperature, pentanes are volatile liquid and inexpensive. They are used as a laboratory solvent.
To learn more about Chemistry related concepts, stay tuned with Junyuan Petroleum Group

Terminal demand for pentane is slowing, and there is a risk of overcapacity in the industry.

Pentane is a fine chemical product. There are three isomers. They are pentane, isopentane and cyclopentane. They are mainly used in polyurethane foam, EPS foaming agent and new type hydrocarbon refrigerant in air conditioning and refrigerator. The upstream of pentane industry chain is the by-product from cracking of natural gas condensate, oil field light hydrocarbon and light naphtha ethylene plant, and the main product of C5 is cyclopentadiene. The downstream is the application market, mainly focusing on polyurethane foaming agent, EPS foaming agent, linear low density polyethylene solvent and other fields.
Due to the different structures and properties of n-pentane, isopentane and cyclopentane, their application fields are quite different. N-pentane can be isomerized to produce isopentane, and can also be used as foaming agent. It can also be used in low temperature thermometer, artificial ice, anesthetic, and pentanol synthesis. Isopentane is an important admixture to improve octane number of gasoline, and is also an important raw material for isoprene production. It can also be dehydrogenated, chlorinated, and hydrolyzed to produce isopentene, isoprene, and isopentanol, which are organically synthesized Cyclopentane is mainly used in organic synthesis and intermediate of fine chemicals, and its market demand is low at present.

According to the comprehensive market research and investment analysis report of pentane industry in China 2020-2024 issued by China Industrial Research Center It shows that the pentane terminal market is home appliances, building materials, packaging and other industries. In recent years, the above three industries present different development trends. Among them, due to the rapid development of package delivery industry, the demand of packaging industry is strong; however, the development of home appliances and construction industry is relatively slow, and the demand for pentane is declining. In general, in recent years, the pentane demand presents a fluctuating growth state, and the growth rate is slow. In 2019, the pentane industry demand in China is 273000 tons, and the market scale reaches 1.83 billion yuan, of which isopentane is the largest, accounting for 45%; followed by n-pentane, accounting for 39%; cyclopentane and other products, accounting for 16%.
The raw materials for pentane production are mainly in the hands of petrochemical refineries. The representative enterprises are PetroChina, Sinopec, etc. with their own raw material advantages, they have a high market share. Pentane production enterprises need to purchase raw materials from large petrochemical refineries for processing, so considering transportation conditions and costs, most pentane production enterprises are located near large petrochemical refineries, mainly in Shandong Province, and East China currently accounts for more than 50% of the production capacity. At present, the leading enterprise of pentane production in China is Junyuan Petroleum Group.

These 95% and 99% CP (chemically pure) n-Pentane (by Junyuan Petroleum Group ) are of purity suitable for use in general applications as a non-polar solvent. n-Pentane is a relatively light, straight, five-membered alkane useful for extraction and is easily evaporated and recovered.

These products are shipped in a 125kg drum or 14.5MT ISO Tank.

CONTAINS

C5H12 CAS No. 109-66-0 MW 72.15

TEST SPECIFICATION

Appearance: Colorless
Assay (by GC): min 95.0%
Water (H2O): max 0.02%

Balances are calibrated regularly with weights certified traceable to the NIST national mass standard. All products are prepared according to master documents that assure manufacture according to validated methods. Batch records document traceability and production history for each lot manufactured.

The Certificate of Analysis is designed to comply with ISO Guide 31 “Reference Materials — Contents of Certificates and Labels.”

n-Pentane can be used to prepare isopentane and can also be used as extractant. Foaming agent of polystyrene, lubricant of liquid air. It is used for low temperature thermometers, making ice, anesthetics and synthesizing amyl alcohol. Isopentane is a mixture to improve the octane number of “lead-free” gasoline. It is also the raw material for isoprene production. Isopentene and isoprene can be prepared by dehydrogenation, and isoamyl alcohol can be obtained by chlorination and hydrolysis. When the content of n-Pentane in the product is more than 95% (WT), it can be used as the desorption agent of molecular sieve dewaxing process. The product can meet the requirements of different foaming degrees after blending with different proportions of isopentane. It can be used as an efficient foaming agent for expandable polystyrene.

Overall, in recent years, pentane demand shows a fluctuating growth state, with a slow growth rate. In 2021, the demand of China’s pentane industry is 363,000 tons, and the market scale reaches 1.96 billion yuan, of which the scale of Isopentane is the largest, accounting for 46%; n-Pentane is the second, accounting for 40%; Cyclopentane and other products account for 14%.

There are three isomers of pentane, namely n-pentane, isopentane and neopentane. The physical and chemical properties of the three substances are different, so they can be separated and purified by physical methods.

At present, the annual consumption of pentane in China is nearly 66 KT, of which the consumption of EPS pentane foaming agent is about 30 kt / A, accounting for 45% of the total consumption; the consumption of pentane for polyurethane is 33 kt / A, accounting for 50% of the total consumption; the consumption of pentane carrier solvent of linear low density polyethylene is 3 kt / A, accounting for 5% of the total consumption.

The market size of cyclopentane is estimated to be $242.4 million in 2018 and is expected to reach $335.7 million by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.7%. According to the in-depth study report on the global and Chinese Cyclopentane industry in 2018-2023 issued by New World industry research, the market growth can be attributed to the increased use of cyclopentane in residential and commercial refrigerator applications.

Isopentane is a mixture to improve the octane number of “lead-free” gasoline. It is also the raw material for isoprene production. Isopentene and isoprene can be prepared by dehydrogenation, and isoamyl alcohol can be obtained by chlorination and hydrolysis.

Our n-Pentane product features: using high-quality light hydrocarbon raw materials, high purity and stable quality. Sales inquiries: info@junyuanpetroleumgroup.com

Systematic Name: n-pentane
Molar Mass: 72.151 g/mol
Molecular Formula: C5H12
Condensed Formula: CH3(CH2)3CH3
CAS number: 109-66-0, 8031-35-4
EC number: 203-692-4

NAME
1,3-dimethylpropan
amyl hydride
C5H12 (pentane)
diethylmethan
n-c5h12
normal pentane
normal-pentane
normalpentane
norpar 5s
n-pentan
n-pentane
n-pentane, hplc grade
n-pentane, spectrophotometric grade
pentan
pentane
pentane, hplc grade
pentanen
pentanen-pentane
pentani
pentan, wasserfrei
skellysolve a
skellysolve-a
UN 1265