Ali Pajouhan told Shana about an MTP semi-industrial unit developed by PRTC, which has recently been put into operation with a production capacity of about 40 kg of propylene per hour from methanol.

"The Petrochemical Research and Technology Company stated working on the plant in 2002 by signing a deal with Germany’s Lurgi which is now a subsidiary to Air Liquide,” he said.

Based on the deal, he said, a number of joint activities were carried out with Lurgi and a demo plant was built and was under installation but prior to its commissioning, new round of sanctions were imposed on Iran and the Germany company pulled out of the project. Therefore, PRTC had to continue operation on the project afterward.

He pointed out that the construction of an MTP demo unit was one of the tasks of the Petrochemical Research and Technology Company in order to prove this technology based on this contract, adding there were many problems in this project for PRTC, but after going through many difficulties, the company finally developed the MTP technical savvy by fully relying on local forces. Today PRTC can provide complete engineering documents of the technology.

Noting that the MTP catalyst is provided exclusively by Clarinet Company, he said: "PRTC has done significant work in the field of MTP catalyst in the past few years, and fortunately its production and patent catalyst has been done domestically. The MTP catalyst production unit can meet the complete needs of an industrial plant and will be launched in PRTC center in Arak soon. The MTP process uses two catalysts, DME and MTP, and the unit of both catalysts will be launched by the end of this year or at most the first three months of next year.”