Propylene, polymer grade

Activity Propylene by catalytic propane dehydrogenation (moving bed with continuous catalyst regeneration), GLO: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedpropylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylenePreliminaryReport 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

Per 1 t of polymer-grade propylene, gate-to-gate, moving-bed platinum catalyst with continuous regeneration (Oleflex type). Propane, electricity and consumables from one published 2022 design; the hydrogen-rich net gas and light ends are burnt in the unit's fired heaters and the site boilers, as that design does, so propylene is the only product counted. Part of that heat leaves as steam to the polypropylene plant, an exported co-product the source does not quantify, so propylene carries all of the combustion CO2 (an upper bound). Combustion CO2 from the carbon balance.

Reference product: 1 kilogram of Propylene, polymer grade
Chemical: propylene
CAS: 115-07-1
Code: propylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylene
Dataset: propylene-propane-dehydrogenation version 0.1.0 · UUID 77112cd9-8b25-55cb-8b49-47b616bd7eb0
Activity UUID: not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database: cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4 (version preview-a3c52e4)
Process: Propylene by catalytic propane dehydrogenation (moving bed with continuous catalyst regeneration)
Geography: GLO · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period: 2022 · valid until 2027
Technology: catalytic dehydrogenation of propane over a platinum catalyst in moving-bed reactors with continuous catalyst regeneration and interstage fired heaters; the cyclic fixed-bed (chromium oxide) route and the hydrogen-export variant are not modelled · level current
Boundary: gate-to-gate: depropaniser, reactor section with fired heaters, continuous catalyst regeneration, effluent compression, cold-box product recovery, deethaniser and propane-propylene splitter, plus the combustion of the whole net gas; electricity from outside; site utilities and off-sites excluded
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, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights: CC-BY-4.0

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Propylene, polymer grade

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 3 calculated, 7 given, 1 assumed. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary6 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.

Input	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree	Linked to
Propane (C3 LPG, taken as pure propane) feed:propane midpoint of the two figures of one design, converted to propylene with its production rates: Table 4.1 gives 1217.1 kg/t, section 3.1 gives 1158.7 kg/t (RINA Consulting 2022, Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report, ESIA Annex S); the midpoint is our choice. Compare a mass yield of 85 % (Honeywell UOP 2019, benchmarks/olefins.yaml)	1.188	kilogram	calculated	4 4 3 3 3	unlinked unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (chemical 'propane'); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Electricity feed:electricity RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15 (PDH unit), converted to propylene with the production rates of section 3.1; the design's renewable supply contract is not modelled electricity	0.8468	kilowatt hour	given	4 4 3 3 3	market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Platinum dehydrogenation catalyst (Oleflex type) input:catalyst RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15; mass outside the element balance; a precious-metal catalyst, never cut (system-model section 4)	2.56e-5	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	unlinked 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
Activated alumina (adsorbent) input:alumina RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15; mass outside the element balance	0.001822	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	unlinked 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
Dimethyl disulfide (sulfur injection) input:dmds RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15; mass outside the element balance (its sulfur leaves as SO2 or H2S, TODO)	4.549e-4	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	unlinked 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
Caustic soda, 50 wt-% solution feed:caustic-50 RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15, by mass of solution; mass outside the element balance (spent caustic, TODO)	0.002127	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	Atlas (pinned): Chlor-alkali by membrane-cell electrolysis (100 kt/a Cl2, 50 wt-% caustic soda, hydrogen) (Sodium hydroxide, Caustic soda 50 wt-% to storage, GLO) compatible: grade the input names sodium-hydroxide only; sodium-hydroxide (Sodium hydroxide, Caustic soda 50 wt-% to storage) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation shares (deviation); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Phosphate (PDH unit; its use, probably boiler-water treatment, is our reading) input:phosphate RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15 (the salt is not named); mass outside the element balance	1.319e-4	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	unlinked 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
Chlorine (chloride make-up of the catalyst regeneration) feed:chlorine RINA Consulting (2022) Ceyhan PDH-PP LCA Report (ESIA Annex S), Table 4.1, p. 15; its use in the regeneration is our reading; mass outside the element balance (HCl to the vent scrubber, TODO)	1.585e-4	kilogram	given	4 4 3 3 3	Atlas (pinned): Chlor-alkali by membrane-cell electrolysis (100 kt/a Cl2, 50 wt-% caustic soda, hydrogen) (Dry chlorine gas to the consumer (400 kPa(a)), GLO) compatible: grade the input names chlorine only; chlorine (Dry chlorine gas to the consumer (400 kPa(a))) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation shares (deviation); boundary plant gate (pinned): no distribution or losses; the consumer's dataset counts its delivery
Spent activated alumina, to disposal output:spent-alumina ASSUMED equal to the make-up (RINA Consulting 2022, Table 4.1, p. 15, gives the input only); mass outside the element balance	0.001822	kilogram	assumed	4 4 4 4 4	unlinked 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

Elementary flows

Flow	Direction	Compartment	Amount	Unit	Provenance	Pedigree
Carbon dioxide, fossil 349b29d1-3e58-4c66-98b9-9d1a076efd2e	emission	air	0.4191	kilogram	calculated	4 4 4 4 4
Water 075e433b-4be4-448e-9510-9a5029c1ce94	emission	air	6.568e-4	cubic meter	calculated	4 4 4 4 4

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/propylene-pdh-1/lca/datasets/propylene-propane-dehydrogenation.yaml in library version a3c52e4.

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: not available
Mass and carbon closure: Not available: a hand-written dataset: no lca/manifest.json records its balance
Change report: Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

KPI	Value	Reference range	Position
Direct CO2 per t of propylene No open source read with a direct CO2 figure (2026-11-05). A process study in J. Clean. Prod. (2022) appeared only in a search-engine summary and was not read, so its figure is not recorded. The design report the dataset uses lists no direct emission from burning its own fuel gas in its GWP breakdown (ESIA Annex S, Table 6.2). The dataset's value follows from its carbon balance with the net gas burnt on site.	– kg/t	not available	not evaluated
Propylene per mass of propane fed	– kg/kg	0.85 to 0.85 kg/kg Marsh, M., Wery, J. (2019) Filling the propylene gap: shaping the future with on-purpose technologies. Honeywell UOP white paper UOP8395 (manufacturer)	not evaluated
Electricity per t of propylene No open source independent of the dataset's own found (2026-11-05). Read: LVOC BREF sections 2.2.7 and 3.2.1 (PDH named, no data); JRC (Boulamanti and Moya 2017, EUR 28471 EN, no PDH figures); Ren, Patel and Blok 2006 (Energy 31:425, open copy: PDH named in a figure, no PDH figure found in the text); Honeywell UOP 2019 white paper (no utility figures). The dataset's value is the Ceyhan design report's (ESIA Annex S, Table 4.1). A Honeywell UOP slide deck of 2024 with energy figures is marked confidential and was not used. A Lummus Catofin technical sheet could not be retrieved (HTTP 404).	– kWh/t	not available	not evaluated

How to use it

Downloads

cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4.xlsx · bw2io ExcelImporter workbook (bw2io 0.9 Excel layout) · the whole database
code propylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylene
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-olca-jsonld.zip · openLCA JSON-LD (olca-schema) (2) · the whole database
process 77112cd9-8b25-55cb-8b49-47b616bd7eb0 (processes/77112cd9-8b25-55cb-8b49-47b616bd7eb0.json)
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4-multifunctional.json · Brightway 2.5 multifunctional database (JSON, for the multifunctional package) (cheme-as-code/lci-multifunctional/v1) · the whole database
code propylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylene
cheme_as_code_lci-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl · the installer

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-a3c52e4.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-a3c52e4", "propylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylene"))

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

Propylene, polymer grade, from Propylene by catalytic propane dehydrogenation (moving bed with continuous catalyst regeneration) (dataset propylene-propane-dehydrogenation 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-a3c52e4, activity propylene-pdh-1:propylene-propane-dehydrogenation:product:propylene. 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-a3c52e4.

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). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. arXiv:2611.07947. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947

BibTeX

@misc{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering}},
  year = {2026},
  eprint = {2611.07947},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2611.07947},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07947}
}