Thread Content
By 2025, Sinopec Guangdong Petrochemical Company had delivered an outstanding performance: under the challenging conditions of processing 46 different types of crude oils from around the world, the annual production volumes of its three core facilities for crude oil processing, ethylene, and aromatics all exceeded the standards set by world-class enterprises. With its ability to excel in all three areas, the company demonstrated to the world its superior capabilities in processing complex raw materials, operating large-scale domestic equipment, and producing high-end chemical products. Large-scale domestic ethylene production facilities lead in terms of energy efficiency. As of 6:00 on December 29, 2025, the annual production of the 1.2 million tons per year ethylene plant exceeded 1.4 million tons, indicating that China’s self-designed, built, and operated million-ton-class ethylene plants have reached an advanced level in terms of long-term operation, high load capacity, and high energy efficiency. Guangdong Petrochemical has been recognized as a benchmark enterprise for energy efficiency leadership (ethylene) for two consecutive years. Since 2025, ethylene plants have faced multiple challenges such as diversified raw materials and large market fluctuations, while continuing to operate safely and at high capacity. By establishing a refined management system characterized by goal orientation, problem-focused approaches, and closed-loop results management, they innovated cross-departmental collaboration mechanisms. They set up regular cooperation processes with upstream and downstream units involving daily communication, weekly coordination, and monthly reviews, thereby creating an efficient collaborative production support system. In terms of technical innovation, to address the key bottlenecks that affect the operation of the equipment, technical staff established specialized task forces to carry out various technical improvements, such as the renovation of the methane-rich gas recovery system and the optimization of the ethylene vapor filtration system. At the same time, an innovation mechanism covering all aspects including processes, equipment, and instrumentation was put in place. From operational optimization to equipment improvement, from energy conservation and cost reduction to quality enhancement, employees actively offered their ideas and suggestions; in total, more than 200 such improvement proposals were implemented, effectively solving practical problems in the production process. The technical team conducted in-depth research on energy conservation and consumption reduction for the plant. Through comprehensive measures such as optimizing the operating parameters of the cracking furnace and improving the operation of the quenching system, the overall energy consumption of the plant was reduced by approximately 5% compared to the design values. In terms of environmental protection, through measures such as optimizing the operation of the flare system and improving waste gas treatment facilities, the emissions of volatile organic compounds from this facility have decreased by 15% compared to the previous year, demonstrating the practical results of green development in large-scale petrochemical facilities. Dual drive of technological innovation and talent development in aromatics sector; aromatics plants have also set new records. As of 16:00 on December 29, 2025, the total production of p-xylene (PX) exceeded 2.6 million tons, while the production of benzene products surpassed 760,000 tons, representing a 3% year-on-year increase. In 2025, the aromatic units successfully overcame numerous challenges. Faced with the problem of solvent contamination in the extraction unit, the department’s party committee promptly formed a \"Boost Efficiency and Increase Production\" task force. By using online purification technologies, it succeeded in significantly reducing the levels of harmful substances in the system. This not only saved over 600,000 yuan in costs and reduced solid waste emissions, but also ensured the long-term safe operation of the equipment from the root level. To address the bottleneck issue of the key separation unit, Tower C-8003, not operating at its designed capacity, a dedicated optimization team composed of experienced process engineers made a series of precise adjustments, including reorganizing the components within the distillation tower and optimizing the reflux ratio. As a result, the separation efficiency of the tower improved significantly, the proportion of heavy components in the feed material decreased, and the annual production of PX increased by nearly 50,000 tons. This enabled the plant to operate with high load, high output, and high quality. These optimization measures, together with the continuous improvement in energy efficiency of equipment such as heat exchangers and heating furnaces, helped the aromatic compounds plant win the titles of \"Leader\" in both energy efficiency and water efficiency for key products in the petroleum and chemical industry in 2024, right from its first application. In terms of talent development, the department has innovatively established a three-in-one training model of \"assessment—incentive—inheritance\", which has improved the skill levels of the team. Key indicators such as the rate of technicians obtaining relevant certifications have seen significant increases compared to the previous year, providing solid talent support for the continuous and stable high production of the facility. Setting a benchmark for the efficient conversion of low-quality oil – In the refining sector, the outstanding performance of two refinery units with a capacity of 10 million tons each helped to bring the annual production cycle to a successful conclusion. As of 6:00 on December 31, 2025, the annual crude oil processing volume exceeded the 20 million tons mark. Since its commissioning three years ago, the atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit of Refinery Unit 1 has processed a total of 46 different types of crude oil from 17 countries, with the overall processing volume exceeding 56 million tons. Faced with the challenges associated with processing low-quality crude oil, under the overall leadership of the departmental Party committee, all employees strengthened their sense of responsibility, continuously optimized operational procedures, and precisely adjusted quality parameters. Through flexible production scheduling and ongoing inspections, they carried out special initiatives such as \"finding gold by identifying potential hazards\" and \"finding gold by detecting unusual odors\", thereby establishing a robust safety and environmental protection framework for the facilities. Since the fourth quarter of 2025, the maximum operating load rate of the two atmospheric and vacuum distillation units has remained above 105% for an extended period. While striving to increase production volume, Guangdong Petrochemical places greater emphasis on product quality and structural optimization. Focusing on the \"reduce oil content and enhance quality\" strategy, the technical team of Refining Unit 1 has taken a series of measures, including optimizing the reduced-pressure vacuum system, applying reduced-pressure deep distillation techniques, and strictly controlling the outlet temperature of the reduced-pressure furnace. These efforts have enabled continuous improvements in the dry point of naphtha as well as the quality and yield of key fractions such as those from Line 1, Line 2, and Line 3 of the distillation process. As a result, high-quality raw materials are supplied to downstream aromatic and ethylene production units, facilitating synergistic benefits through integrated refining and chemical processing. In addition, through continuous technological upgrades, the asphalt processing capacity has been doubled compared to the design level, significantly enhancing the market competitiveness of the products; thus, the goal of transformation and upgrading toward producing high-quality products from basic raw materials has been initially achieved. Zhao Rui, manager of Refining Department 1, said, “Moving forward, Refining Department 1 will continue to drive technological and managerial innovation to make greater contributions to ensuring energy security and supporting the high-quality development of the regional economy.” ”