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.