Who knows how things are with the polyoxymethylene produced in Shanghai on Blue Planet, and that produced by Shenhua Ningmei?
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Polyoxymethylene produced by Sinochem Lanxing Shanghai and that manufactured by Shenhua Ningmei uses **the same technology – so what’s the status of that now? Is it true that the polyoxymethylene plant in Shanghai went into operation this year? How are the product quality and consumption? Some people say that the best polyoxymethylene technology in the world has been found in Kaifeng. But before any breakthroughs were made in this technology in China, was it really possible to obtain the best available technology? DuPont, Selenia, BASF, Mitsubishi of Japan, Asahi Kasei of Japan, Ube of Japan, KEP of South Korea, and LG of South Korea had contact with us 15 years ago; Americans don’t do business with us, and the others have the intention but not the courage. Even though we used polyoxymethylene made with Polish technology, they did not give in; since Polish technology can only be used to produce polyoxymethylene of medium to low density, its market price is lower than that of foreign brands, so it poses no threat to them. In addition to the above issues, I am still pursuing a path of using domestic products, so I would like to solve the following problems that have been bothering me for 15 years. (1) Issues with the material of the trioxane synthesis reactor: To reduce the number of equipment units, the original enamel-coated equipment was replaced with acid-resistant steel. Testing was conducted using 317L steel, molybdenum-titanium alloys, and pure titanium specimens in the synthesis reactor, and corrosion of varying degrees was observed in all of them. (2) High energy consumption due to large amounts of dilute aldehyde recovery: The polyoxymethylene production plant faces the problem of high energy consumption associated with the large quantities of dilute aldehyde that need to be recovered. We have tried various methods to reduce the amount of formaldehyde that needs to be concentrated, the amount of trimethylolpropane obtained from the purification process, and the amount of unpolymerized trimethylolpropane sent for dilute aldehyde recovery, but these measures have had little effect. (3) The copolymer monomer we used is dioxolane DOX; what were those used in Shanghai, Yinchuan, and Kaifeng? Seralis uses EO ethylene oxide, while LG employs TOC trioxane; last year, LG’s polyoxymethylene plant was sold. (4) For post-treatment capping, we use ammonia for capping as well as hemiacetal; what is used in Shanghai, Yinchuan, and Kaifeng? Are they all heat-sealed?
Shanghai, Yinchuan, and Kaifeng all use **the same technology, with the comonomer being dioxolane DOX**
The polyoxymethylene production line in Shanghai has already been put into operation, but it is not known how it performs under long-term operation. The alkali plant in Tianjin is under construction, with plans to start production by the end of 2009. Kaifeng has just begun the detailed design process, while no design work has yet started in Ningxia. All use **Blue Diamond’s technology** (which is actually a Taiwanese company; it is said to be based on Formosa Plastics’ technology)!
Has Shanghai’s polyoxymethylene already started producing products? How are the quality and output? It seems there are no reports on it
The existing polyoxymethylene production projects in the country use two different manufacturing processes: 1. **Fuyi + Wuhuan Company (formerly the Fourth Research Institute for Chemistry)**； 2. Polish company + Chengda Company (formerly the Eighth Research Institute of Chemistry). In the current polyoxymethylene projects: the Yuntianan Changshou project and CNOOC Tiannye belong to category 1, while Shanghai Lanxing, Tianjian, Ningmei, and Longyu Kaifeng belong to category 2 ； Before all these projects, the only domestic plant capable of producing 15,000 tons of polyoxymethylene (formerly known as copolyoxymethylene) was Nantong Baotailing; this company is a Japanese-owned enterprise and should have been using Kawasaki’s technology
Shanghai Lanxing uses Fuyi technology. Before the New Year, I met people from the Fourth Research Institute who said that the vehicles had indeed been put into use, but then stopped operating again.
Is the poster from Yuntianhua? The questions are all very professional; they’re not easy to answer
It is hoped that China National Chemical Blue Star can, just like Yantai Wanhua MDI, become a symbol of China’s domestic POM industry. If the blue planet route doesn’t work, it seems that polyoxymethylene will still need to be explored for some time, perhaps leaving room for other companies to imagine alternative solutions. Haiyou on the fifth floor mentioned that Nantong Baotailing has built a plant for producing 15,000 tons of copolymerized polyoxymethylene using Kawasaki technology; Nantong also has another plant for producing copolymerized polyoxymethylene, operated by Mitsubishi from Japan, KEP from South Korea, Boron from Japan, and Ticona from the United States. I wonder if there is any relationship between them? Is it a company? DuPont in the United States and Asahi Kasei in Japan, which possess homopolymerization technology, each hold a 50% stake in a facility in Zhangjiagang that produces 60,000 tons of POM per year; one of the production lines with a capacity of 20,000 tons has been in operation for many years. Has it been expanded to 60,000 tons at present? Some articles report that 270,000 tons of polyoxymethylene were imported into the country in 2007 – is this figure accurate? What is the domestic POM production volume, excluding imports? Could any fellow sailor tell me about the production capacity of POM manufacturers in China at present, as well as the status of POM-related projects under construction?
It’s not from Yuntianhua. I used to be one of the domestic designers of polyoxymethylene technology, and I was directly involved in tackling technical challenges in factories as well as in the development of equipment. Although the product was developed, the raw material consumption was too high; the facility was unable to operate for more than ten years, and the industrialization attempt ultimately failed. Sixteen years have passed in the blink of an eye, and polyoxymethylene has remained a source of concern for me. I’m sorry, Party, I’m sorry **; please don’t laugh when you see me say this – it’s the truth.
The synthesis reactor must absolutely be made of corrosion-resistant material. Aldehyde recovery is necessary, unless someone develops a process with a higher conversion rate. At the moment, the main focus is on how to improve separation efficiency. Reduce the absolute amount of dilute aldehyde (concentration and quantity).
Several key elements of a polyoxymethylene factory: first, the ability to access advanced technology, ensuring stable product quality, a wide range of grades, and good adaptability； Secondly, combining the recovery of polyoxymethylene aldehyde with downstream facilities for using this aldehyde is the most economical and reasonable approach; such enterprises have strong competitiveness when investing in the production of polyoxymethylene. Having methanol available in large quantities is certainly an advantage, but it is not a necessity. The domestic production of methanol amounts to 7 million tons, so it is easy to obtain in the market. 1 ton of polyoxymethylene requires 1.28 tons of methanol, so transporting and supplying 10,000 tons of methanol per year is not a difficult task.