Axens has announced that Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical Industries Inc. (TJOCI) will use Axens’ technologies and catalysts for its isononyl alcohol (INA) production plant. TJOC is a Joint Venture (JV) between CPC Corporation, Taiwan and KH Neochem Co., Ltd for a project to produce and sell Iso-nonyl Alcohol (INA, an oxo alcohol) in Taiwan.

On February 11th 2015, CPC, KH Neochem (KHNC) and Mega International Commercial Bank (MICB) signed an agreement setting up a joint-venture for the production of high value-added petrochemical products.

Under this agreement, TJOCI will invest NT$13.7 billion in construction of a production plant of INA in Kaohsiung area, Taiwan. The plant is scheduled to begin commercial operations in 2019 with its initial annual production capacity of high value-added petrochemical products set at 180,000 tons of INA.

The INA is mainly used to produce diisononyl phthalate (DINP) which is a plasticizer.

As part of this project, Axens will provide a whole chain of technologies including MTBE and Dimersol-XTM technologies to ensure octenes production utilized for the synthesis of the INA via hydroformylation.

"We are extremely pleased to help TJOCI in this venture. Axens’ ability to propose a complete and well proven solution for octenes production has been critical in this project. This will continue to strengthen our relationship with both CPC and KH Neochem. We think that the business of production of phthalates with longer carbon chain such as DINP will continue to grow in the near future and Axens’ technologies in this field are a very good fit” said Christian Dupraz, Axens’ Senior Executive Vice-President, Process Licensing.