TEHRAN – Managing Director of Iran’s Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC) has said the country is going to become fully self-sufficient in producing the catalysts used in the petrochemical industry by the Iranian calendar year 1402 (starts in March 2023).

As Shana reported, Majid Daftari has said that out of 40 types of catalyst groups in the petrochemical industry, the knowledge for the production of 20 has been indigenized, adding: “By the end of this year (March 20, 2022), [the knowledge for producing] eight more groups will be indigenized and the remaining 12 groups are being researched or developed.”

According to plans, by [the Iranian calendar year] 1402, Iran will not need to import the main catalysts required by the petrochemical industry, he stressed.

Daftari noted that over the past few years, despite the sanctions the PRTC has tried to meet the needs of the domestic companies regarding petrochemical catalysts, in collaboration with other knowledge-based companies.

Back in July, the former Head of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Behzad Mohammadi had announced that Iranian engineers were going to indigenize the knowledge for the production of 72 percent of the catalysts needed in the country’s petrochemical industry by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

According to Mohammadi, the country needs $275 million worth of catalysts annually, $200 million of which is domestically supplied.

The domestic production of the mentioned catalysts is going to save the country $150-$180 million annually.

Back in March 2020, the former PRTC Head Ali Pajouhan said that NPC had signed 20 contracts with knowledge-based companies for mass production of catalysts and 70 research projects were also underway in this regard.

In early January 2020, NPC held a seminar on the indigenization of petrochemical industry catalysts in Kish Island.

The seminar was aimed to create a common language and synergy between catalyst producers and consumers and also to provide a platform to discuss and evaluate the performance of the native catalysts.

Petrochemical is Iran's most important industry after oil and gas. The National Petrochemical Company hopes to lift output capacity to 120 million tons per annum by 2022.

The petrochemical industry has played a key role in domestic economic growth as it creates value-added and reduces the sale of oil and gas on which the economy has been dependent for decades.

With abundant hydrocarbon reserves and new private sector investments, Iran is working hard to maintain its global status in this key sector and broaden its scope.

EF/MA