LABSA Project - Cape Town , SA

LABSA Production Plant

The project concerns a sulphonation plant based on a Multitube Film Reactor process, designed to produce sulphonic acid and active matter from all the main raw material used in the detergent industry, namely dodecyclbenzene, linear and branched alkylbenzene , alcohols, ethoxylated alcohols, alpha olefins, etc.

The plant main product will be 2000kg/hr of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulphonic Acid (LABSA), a commodity used in the manufacture of domestic and industrial detergents.

LABSA is prepared commercially by sulphonating linear alkylbenzene (LAB). Linear alkylbenzene sulphonate (LAS), the world’s largest-volume synthetic surfactant, which includes the various salts of sulphonated alkylbenzenes, is widely used in household detergents as well as in numerous industrial applications. The LABSA market is driven by the markets for LAS, primarily household detergents. Linear alkylbenzene sulphonate was developed as a biodegradable replacement for nonlinear (branched) alkylbenzene sulphonate (BAS) and has largely replaced BAS in household detergents throughout the world.

Products & Services

The proposed LABSA plant will be built based on the patented Multitube Falling Film Reactor of the updated Desmat Ballestra Sulphonation technology. Desmat Ballestra is the world leading company in the design and implementation of sulphonation plants with over 70% of the whole world market share and a preferred supplier of sulphonation plant to the major surfactants and detergent manufacturers, like Unilever, P&G, Henkel, Stepan, BASF and many more.

A great advantage of the Ballestra’s film sulphonation plant is the special design of the reactor distribution heads which give the possibility to dose accurately and to keep the exact mole ratio between the raw material and the sulphonation gas in each single reaction tube, and to self-equilibrate it, thus eliminating any risk of oversulphonation.

This feature is very important when sensible raw materials such as alcohols and ethoxylated alcohols are processed or top quality LABSA must be produced. The exact mole ratio between SO3 and organic feedstock is essential to obtain the maximum conversion degree with optimum color.

The LABSA coming out of the reactor is degassed, aged, stabilized and cooled before being sent to storage.

Product Quality

Using raw materials of high quality the products obtained will have the following characteristics:

A Linear DDB: as sulphonic acid (LABSA) 97%

B Branched DDB: as sulphonic acid: 96%

Pricing and Distribution

With the current price range in the market our target price is defined based on the 3 main groups of clients :

1- Major Players : such as Unilever , P&G, Colgate and so on

2- Medium to small producers

3- Retail market

We see also a great potential for export to neighboring counties and other African markets such as Kenya. The pricing will be based on international rates at transaction dates. The allocated percentage to each group will vary based on market conditions and time.

The proposed plant will be located in Cape Town and near to the port to facilitate domestic and international transportation.

We have also shaped a network of local and international partners for distribution of the product, after the plant start

Competitors and type of Competition

Currently, majority of the local demand is satisfied by Investchem and Akulu Marchon, the only players in South Africa who manufacture surfactants. Invest Chem is one of the major manufacturers of LAS with a total production capacity of 120000 MT/annum for different items and Akulu marchon with 44000 MT/annum ( different items). These companies make an oligopolistic supply in the region.

These local manufacturers have an advantage over imports due to their higher supply security and better local logistics. Besides, these anionic surfactants are supplied and shipped as 28 percent (SLES, FAS) or 60 percent (LAS) solids, aqueous solutions or pastes, which makes overseas shipment from the U.S., Europe, India or China more expensive.

With respect to the growing demand for anionic surfactants, there is no capacity addition been reported for the future by any of these players and no new manufacturers are planning to enter into the production of anionic surfactants in South Africa.

In case of changes in market trend this plant is able to switch almost instantly to other products to match the demands in the market.

Dorphatec Corp is currently in negotiation with investor and partners for selecting site location and initiation of the project.