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Recently, the \"Three Major Initiatives for Deepening Structural Adjustment: Three-Year Action Plan (2022–2024)\" for Liaoning Province was officially released, outlining the province’s plan to accelerate the development of three industrial hubs worth trillions of yuan each, including a world-class petrochemical and fine chemical industry hub worth 1.3 trillion yuan. The Plan proposes to extend the petrochemical industry chain. Promote the refining and chemical industry to optimize its capacity structure, achieve integrated development of oil refining, olefins, and aromatics processing, accelerate the construction of major integrated refining and chemical projects, facilitate CNPC’s transformation of its refining enterprises in Liaoning from focusing on oil production to emphasizing chemical production, gradually reduce the proportion of finished oil products, and increase the production of basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene, propylene, ethylene oxide, PX, and PTA. Vigorously develop advanced processing, focusing on 11 major categories of fine chemical and new chemical material products, while supporting key industrialization projects and the establishment of pilot production bases. Accelerate the development of the Changxing Island (Xizhong Island)–Liaodong Bay world-class petrochemical industry base. Promote the development of specialized industrial clusters in areas such as fine chemicals, new chemical materials, advanced processing of coal tar, green agrochemicals, and fluorine chemicals. Conduct evaluations and certifications for chemical industrial parks, and promote the relocation and renovation of hazardous chemical manufacturing enterprises in densely populated urban areas. By 2024, Liaoning will have established a petrochemical and fine chemical industry base worth trillions of yuan; the proportion of refined oil production in total crude oil processing volume will drop below 40%, while the level of chemical refinement will reach 48%. Liaoning Province has set development goals for key sectors such as olefins, aromatics, fine chemicals, and new chemical materials: For olefins, efforts will be focused on the development of high-end polyolefins and the advanced processing of ethylene oxide, with companies encouraged to implement transformation and upgrading projects such as DCC and K-COT. By 2024, the ethylene production capacity will reach 10 million tons, the propylene production capacity will reach 6 million tons, and the ethylene oxide production capacity will reach 2 million tons. Aromatics: Develop PX-PTA-polyester and downstream processing industries, and encourage enterprises to carry out transformation and upgrading projects such as continuous reforming. By 2024, the PX production capacity will reach 10 million tons, while the PTA production capacity will reach 20 million tons. Fine chemicals and new chemical materials: 11 major categories including catalysts, advanced processing of ethylene oxide, advanced processing of coal tar, high-performance lubricants, engineering plastics and high-performance resins, high-performance synthetic fibers, special rubbers, electronic chemicals, high-performance membrane materials, surfactants and household chemicals, fluorine-containing materials, and fine chemicals. By 2024, the level of refinement in the chemical industry will reach 48%. Key areas for making breakthroughs in the core technologies that are crucial to the petrochemical industry: overcoming the key technical challenges related to fluorinated, colorless and transparent polyimide film materials; developing intermediate phases of asphalt as well as asphalt-based high-performance carbon fibers; advancing the key technologies for the efficient production of functional bio-based polyamide fibers; developing processes for producing polyolefin elastomers (POE) via solution methods; and advancing the industrialization of high-performance polytetrafluoroethylene dispersion resins – all of which are part of the field of new chemical materials. New microchannel reactor equipment and continuous flow process technologies, as well as green processes that combine catalysis/separation through techniques such as membrane-catalyzed reactions and catalytic distillation reactions. Ultra-low emission environmental catalysts and complete process systems such as oxygen-based catalytic oxidation, high-efficiency catalytic combustion, wet catalytic oxidation, and desulfurization and denitrification. Technologies in fine chemicals such as the research and development of high-performance greases for high-end equipment. In 2022, Liaoning Province developed 45 types of fine chemical products across 11 categories. Promote the transformation and upgrading of CNPC’s enterprises in Liaoning, accelerate the relocation and renovation of Dalian Petrochemical, and advance the construction of a new integrated refining and ethylene production project with a capacity of 10 million tons of refining capacity and 1.2 million tons of ethylene production on Xizhong Island, as well as the Weaponry Huajin Fine Chemicals and Raw Materials project. In 2022, the refinement rate across the province reached 44%. According to available data, as a major province in China’s petrochemical industry, Liaoning Province processed 103 million tons of crude oil in 2020, produced 1.839 million tons of ethylene, 6.33 million tons of PX, and 16.24 million tons of purified terephthalic acid (PTA). Compared to 2015, the province’s crude oil processing volume and PTA production in 2020 increased by 60.5% and 51.8% respectively. Its production capacity for ethylene, PX, and PTA ranks first in the country, while its crude oil processing capacity ranks second.