Process IP
The Esteem Ketene Process™ — 15 years of continuous development. Proprietary reactor design, coil geometry, burner arrangement, and operating regime for Acetic Acid cracking to Ketene and onward to Acetic Anhydride.
Technology Licensing · Acetic Anhydride · Ketene
We license process technology. For real.
Esteem is a process technology licensor for Acetic Anhydride and Ketene cracking — the same chemistry where UOP, Lummus, Axens, and Topsoe operate in their respective domains. We license our IP, deliver the Basic Engineering & Process Design Package, transfer design know-how, and stand behind performance. Optional EPC delivery from the same company that wrote the license.
Why This Page Exists
Indian engineering companies rarely own the process. We do.
Most engineering companies in India — including the largest — execute process packages that someone else designed. The licensor sits in Houston, Paris, Den Haag, or Lyngby. The royalty goes overseas. The local firm builds.
Esteem is different. For Acetic Anhydride and the Ketene cracking chemistry that makes it, we are the licensor. 15 years of continuous process development. Operating plants. Performance guarantees. Peer-class documentation. If you are evaluating technology for a new Anhydride facility, we belong on the shortlist with the global majors — and on this specific chemistry we often beat them.
What We License
The complete technology package
A peer-class license — IP, engineering package, know-how transfer, and performance underwriting. The same structure you would expect from any global licensor.
Basic Engineering & PDP
Complete Basic Engineering & Process Design Package — heat and mass balances, PFDs, P&IDs, equipment specs, utility summaries, safeguarding philosophy, and operating envelope.
Design Know-How Transfer
Structured handover to your process engineering and operations teams. Training on operating regime, start-up and shutdown procedures, performance envelope, and decoking cycle management.
Performance Guarantees
Conversion, yield, energy consumption, and run length are underwritten as part of the license — not treated as best-effort estimates.
How It Works
License, engineer, and optionally build
We offer flexibility most global licensors do not. Take the license alone, add detail engineering, or extend to a full LSTK delivery — depending on how your project is set up.
01
License the process
The process license agreement covers IP rights, technical documentation, territory, and performance guarantees. You receive the PDP and implementation support.
02
Add engineering services
Most operators extend the license to include detail engineering — delivered by the same Esteem engineering team that designed the cracker.
03
Optional EPC delivery
If you want us to build the plant, we take the scope on as a full LSTK package. If you prefer a local or incumbent EPC contractor, we license and hand over.
Why Esteem vs. The Global Licensors
Where we beat UOP, Lummus, Axens, and Topsoe on this chemistry
For large-scale refining catalysis and major petrochemical chains, the global majors are formidable. For Acetic Anhydride via Ketene cracking, the specialist depth, pricing structure, and execution loop tilt the comparison our way.
Specialist depth in this chemistry
UOP, Lummus, Axens, and Topsoe are excellent at refining catalysis and large-scale petrochemistry. Acetic Anhydride via Ketene cracking is not their focus. For this specific chemistry, Esteem is the depth play.
No royalty stack on top of EPC
If you want us to both license and build, you avoid the classic licensor-plus-EPC margin stack. One company, one accountability line, lower total cost.
India-cost engineering
Engineering and project management delivered from Noida at India-based engineering rates — to global standards. The commercial math changes materially on mid-sized Anhydride units.
Operating references, not paper
The Esteem Ketene Process™ is already running — LOIL (Mahad), Jubilant Life Sciences (Nira), and a leading chemical and pharma operator under our LSTK package.
We live the plant, not just the reactor
As an EPC company we have detail-engineered, fabricated, erected, and commissioned Anhydride plants. That feedback loop keeps our process package grounded in execution reality.
API standing
Active API member, co-authoring API 561 for SMR furnaces, contributing to API 560 and API 936. The same engineering culture that participates in global standards writes your PDP.
Who Should Talk To Us
Ideal licensing candidates
The Esteem Ketene Process™ is most relevant for operators building new or expanded Acetic Anhydride capacity, especially in India, the Middle East, and South-East Asia — where the total-cost economics of an Indian licensor landing with global-standard engineering make a material difference to project IRR.
- Specialty and fine chemicals operators planning new Acetic Anhydride capacity
- Pharmaceutical groups vertically integrating into their own Anhydride supply
- Cellulose acetate producers securing captive Anhydride feedstock
- New entrants in India, the Middle East, and South-East Asia building downstream acetyl value chains
- Existing Acetic Acid producers extending forward into Anhydride
Deliverables
What arrives with the license
- Process license agreement and territory definition
- Basic Engineering & Process Design Package (PDP)
- Equipment specifications for the Ketene Furnace and critical units
- Process safeguarding philosophy and HAZOP inputs
- Operating manual, start-up and shutdown procedures
- Performance test protocol and acceptance criteria
- Training for your operations and process engineering teams
- Post-commissioning support through the performance run-in
The Engineering Behind The License
A licensor is only as credible as its engineering
The Esteem license is backed by three decades of fired heater engineering and the same analytical toolset used on every major refinery heater we have delivered.
WinHeat® thermal engine
Our proprietary thermal rating and simulation engine, in continuous development since the 1990s. Every Ketene Furnace is designed in WinHeat.
CFD & FEA
CFD for tube-skin uniformity and hot-spot elimination. FEA for mechanical integrity under severe thermal cycling. Both routinely applied to Ketene service.
API standing
Active API member · co-authoring API 561 · contributing to API 560 and API 936. The engineering culture that writes standards writes your PDP.
Related
Explore the process technology pillar
Technology Licensing is one of three pages covering Esteem's process technology scope. The other two describe the cracker itself and the complete plant offering.
Ketene Crackers
The flagship cracker. 92%+ conversion, extended run length, 15 years of continuous process development.
Acetic Anhydride Plants
Complete LSTK Acetic Anhydride plants with end-to-end performance guarantees from feedstock to product.
Fired Heaters
The engineering foundation under the process technology — three decades of refinery fired heater EPC.
Discuss licensing for your project
Share your capacity target, site location, and feedstock basis. We will respond with a license structure, a basis-of-design outline, and a view on whether to extend to full LSTK delivery.