Environmental Impact Assessment Public Notice for the Upgrading and Transformation of Lanzhou Petrochemical’s 300,000 tons/year polypropylene production facility

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On June 12, the first public notice regarding the environmental impact assessment for the upgrade and transformation of Lanzhou Petrochemical’s 300,000 tons per year polypropylene production facility was released to solicit public input. Project Overview: Project Name: Upgrade and Transformation of Lanzhou Petrochemical’s 300,000 tons/year Polypropylene Production Facility. Location: The site designated for the polypropylene production unit at Lanzhou Petrochemical Company, Xigou District, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. Construction details: The project involves adding one more butene-1 drying tower to the existing polypropylene plant area at Lanzhou Petrochemical Company, installing two additional hydrocarbon/water separators in the oligomer recovery system, adding rotary valves at the outlets of the powder silos, and upgrading some of the equipment in the plant. Both utility and auxiliary systems rely on existing facilities. After the project renovation, the designed production capacity of the polypropylene plant remains at 300,000 tons per year; only the production capacity for random copolymer and terpolymer products is increased, while the production capacity for impact-resistant copolymer products is reduced. Currently, the 1.2 million tons per year ethylene renovation project at Lanzhou Petrochemical is being accelerated. Lanzhou Petrochemical will take the 1.2 million tons per year ethylene project as an opportunity to expand its industrial chain and establish a new materials production base with a capacity of one million tons. Following a brand-focused approach, synthetic resins will further enhance the influence of their key products such as those used in medical applications, automotive industries, metallocene polyolefins, ultra-high voltage cables, and ultra-pure polyolefins. By leveraging ethylene transformation projects, these companies aim to expand high-end industrial chains involving POE, EVA, and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene ； Following a strategy focused on specialization, synthetic rubber production capacity will be expanded with new facilities for 130,000 tons per year of acrylonitrile, 70,000 tons per year of butadiene acrylonitrile, and 600 tons per year of liquid rubber. This will enable the development of products with various properties such as oil resistance, wide temperature range performance, resilience, and wear resistance, thus establishing a leader in the butadiene acrylonitrile industry. It is expected that after completion in 2026, through upgrades to increase production capacity, Lanzhou Petrochemical’s ethylene production capacity will be 1.2 million tons per year at its main facility in Lanzhou and 800,000 tons per year in Yulin, resulting in an overall annual capacity of 2 million tons. This will drive the development of a new materials industry cluster worth hundreds of billions, generating an additional annual industrial output value of over 20 billion yuan, thereby providing strong momentum for Gansu’s strategy to become a strong industrial province. The total investment in the project is approximately 23.17 billion yuan. The renovation plan for the project is divided into three parts: Ethylene renovation – this involves shutting down the existing 240,000 tons per year ethylene plant, removing the cracking, quenching, compression, and propylene units from the existing 460,000 tons per year ethylene plant, and constructing new units for ethylene cracking + quenching + cracked gas compression + propylene production, as well as an 800,000 tons per year cold separation system. The cold separation system from the 460,000 tons per year ethylene plant will be reused, resulting in an ethylene production system with one input and two outputs. Refining upgrade: After the implementation of this project, the types of crude oil processed and the processing volumes in the refining system remain unchanged. By carrying out adaptive upgrades to three existing units – a 1.2 million tons per year catalytic cracking unit, a 3 million tons per year diesel hydrogenation unit, and another 1.2 million tons per year diesel hydrogenation unit – it is possible to increase the amount of raw material available for ethylene production. At the same time, new PSA units and carbon dioxide recovery units will be built. Downstream chemical industry support: 7 new production units will be built (20,000 tons per year of octene-1, 100,000 tons per year of POE, 140,000 tons per year of EVA, 450,000 tons per year of high-density polyethylene, 400,000 tons per year of polypropylene, 700,000 tons per year for the hydrogenation of cracked gasoline, and 700,000 tons per year for aromatic extraction); the existing 170,000 tons per year high-density polyethylene plant will be converted into a plant capable of producing 60,000 tons per year of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.