Isobutene (2-methylpropene), High-purity isobutene to storage

Activity Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage), GLO: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedisobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:IBPPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset
Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Unallocated foreground LCI of Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage), case design, derived from the flowsheet by cheme assess lca.

Reference product
1 kilogram of Isobutene (2-methylpropene), High-purity isobutene to storage (15 bar(a), 40 degC, 99.9747 % IB (mole))
Chemical
isobutene
CAS
115-11-7
Code
isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:IBP
Dataset
isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage version 0.1.0 · UUID e0b18d58-f8de-54c5-abdf-6fa7c7bb39da
Activity UUID
not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348 (version preview-c3ab348)
Process
Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage)
Geography
GLO · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period
2026 · valid until 2031
Technology
gas-phase MTBE cracking over an acidic silica-alumina type catalyst, heated multitubular reactor 553 K / 0.9 MPa, conversion 0.90 per pass with MTBE recycle, water wash, drying/DME column, methanol recovery; 50 kt/a isobutene, concept design · level current
Boundary
gate-to-gate foreground of the plant
Production volume
50,000,000 kg/a (product:IBP per hour x operation.hours_per_year (8000 h/a))
Classification
ISIC Rev.4 2011 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model
attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation
mass, 63.1 % of the dataset to this product (rule deviation, from study)
The WBCSD price-ratio rule cannot be applied: no co-product prices are set at the concept stage and the registry holds none for isobutene or methanol.
Rights
CC-BY-4.0: the ChemE-as-Code process library's own concept design (LICENSE-DATA)

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Isobutene (2-methylpropene), High-purity isobutene to storage

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 7 assumed, 1 calculated. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary1 exchange is not yet linked to a background dataset. It counts no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.
InputAmountUnitProvenancePedigreeLinked to
Fresh MTBE (boundary feed from an MTBE unit or terminal)
feed:MTBEF
fresh MTBE S1 (design basis D-003)
From stream S1
1kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Demineralised make-up water (wash-water loop)
feed:DMW
wash-water make-up S23 (D-007)
From stream S23
0.00448kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3market for water, deionised (water, deionised, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Electric power
feed:POWER
pumps, lumped Q1, and H-101 fan and hot-oil circulation Q18 (ASSUMED 30 kW, D-009)
electricity
From streams Q1, Q18
0.004621kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Fired heat from natural gas (superheater and reactor heating)
feed:FUEL
H-101 absorbed duty Q4 + Q5 (feed superheat and reactor heat, D-009)
heat, natural gas firing, 626.85 degC
From streams Q4, Q5
0.2212kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from natural gas, industrial furnace, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from natural gas, by energy, GLO)
MP steam 1500 kPa(a)
feed:MPS
C-101 reboiler Q2 (D-009)
steam, MP, 198.25 degC, 15 bar(a)
From stream Q2
0.2031kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
LP steam 450 kPa(a)
feed:LPS
C-201, C-301, C-402, C-403 reboilers Q7, Q12, Q14, Q9 (D-009)
steam, LP, 147.65 degC, 4.5 bar(a)
From streams Q7, Q9, Q12, Q14
0.2268kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
Wash-water purge to the site wastewater treatment
product:WW
wash-water purge S20, 5 % of the regenerated water (D-007)
From stream S20
0.004922kilogramcalculated3 4 1 3 3Atlas (plant): wastewater to treatment, per kg (Atlas unit proxy) (wastewater, by mass, GLO)
compatible: grade the input names wastewater only; wastewater (Wastewater treated) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)
Cooling water return
product:CW
heat to cooling water Q3, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q13, Q15, Q16, Q17 (D-009)
cold, 25 degC
From streams Q3, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q13, Q15, Q16, Q17
0.5348kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas (plant): cooling water service, per kWh heat rejected (Atlas screening proxy) (heat rejected to cooling water, GLO)
compatible: grade the input names cooling-water only; cooling-water (Heat rejected to cooling water, 25/35 degC) is taken; unit kilowatt hour; carrier cold, 25 degC from cold, 25 degC; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)

Elementary flows

No elementary flows are exported for this activity (pass-through emissions and free inputs are left out, see the caveats).

The streams are the plant's own flows: an amount here is allocated and per 1 kilogram of Isobutene (2-methylpropene), High-purity isobutene to storage, so it differs from the stream's flow, and it can sum several streams.

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/isobutene-1/lca/dataset.yaml in library version c3ab348.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review
Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality
DQR 2.33 · PEF-style DQR 2.72
TeR 3 · GeR 3 · TiR 1 · P 3.88 · C 4 · weakest TeR · primary data 0 %
Mass and carbon closure
Assessed (lca/manifest.json balance, tolerance 5 %: design maturity concept (sourced screening))
  • lci-carbon-origin: closed
  • lci-element-balance: closed
  • lci-mass-balance: closed
Change report
Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

Not available: no benchmarked KPI for this dataset.

How to use it

Downloads

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348", "isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:IBP"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Isobutene (2-methylpropene), High-purity isobutene to storage, from Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage) (dataset isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-c3ab348, activity isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:IBP. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-c3ab348.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026, in preparation). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}