Guangxi Petrochemical’s 1.2 million tons per year ethylene plant successfully passed the 96-hour full-load performance test

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Recently, Guangxi Petrochemical’s 1.2 million tons per year ethylene plant successfully passed a 96-hour full-load performance test; the feed rate remained stable at 435 tons per hour, the core units operated smoothly, and the overall yield of diolefins reached 48.67%, with various key indicators exceeding the design requirements. The successful completion of this **key project not only filled the gap in large-scale ethylene production in the southwestern region, but also set a new benchmark for the high-quality development of China’s petrochemical industry, thanks to its self-developed technologies across the entire value chain and rapid construction pace. As a strategic project for the petrochemical industry’s expansion in the southwest, this facility serves as the core driver for Guangxi Petrochemical’s transformation from a \"fuel-based\" refinery into an enterprise focused on chemical products and organic materials. With a total investment of 30.5 billion yuan, the project has established a cluster of 16 modern production units centered around an ethylene plant, undertaking the important mission of optimizing the petrochemical industry layout in the southwest and contributing to the development of the new land-sea corridor in the west. Project construction has created an industry miracle. From the start of pile foundation construction in July 2023 to completion in July 2025, overcoming natural challenges such as the rainy season and typhoons, the actual construction period was only 23 months. It achieved the remarkable goal of \"completion of design, vehicle deployment, calibration, and project handover in the same year\"; within half a year, over 22,000 A1-sized as-built drawings were reviewed, 18,954 sets of equipment documents passed third-party verification, and qualified products were produced in just 12 hours and 3 minutes, demonstrating the exceptional efficiency of Sinopec’s construction efforts. Independent innovation is the core strength of the device. The project utilizes a set of domestic technologies that have been continuously improved by Huanqiu Company; the efficiently designed furnace tubes developed independently enhance thermal efficiency, while the self-developed rapid cooling heat exchangers reduce reliance on imported products. The deployment of the world’s first large-scale electrically-driven ethylene refrigeration compressor enables a reduction in both energy consumption and carbon emissions. A green electricity supply mechanism ensures that all additional electricity demand is met by clean energy sources, highlighting its green and low-carbon characteristics. Calibration data demonstrates excellent performance. The purity of polymer-grade ethylene is 99.99%, and that of propylene is 99.7%, both exceeding the standards for top-quality products as defined by national regulations ； The comprehensive energy consumption is 532.886 kg of standard oil per ton of ethylene, which is better than the **advanced energy efficiency value** ； Nitrogen oxide emissions are as low as 14 mg/m³, which is 1/5 of the national standard, achieving a win-win situation for both economy and environmental protection. High-quality raw materials will fill the gap in high-end chemical new materials in the southwest, enabling an annual increase in chemical product production of 3.06 million tons and a reduction in oil consumption by 3.49 million tons. The successful calibration marks the full establishment of stable operational capabilities for the first million-ton-class ethylene plant in the southwestern region. Once operational, the project will serve the southwestern, southern Chinese, and ASEAN markets, helping to develop a green chemical and new materials industry cluster worth trillions of yuan in the Qinzhou Petrochemical Industrial Park, thereby injecting strong momentum into the regional economic development. From independent technological breakthroughs to the efficient construction of projects, the successful implementation of the ethylene project at Guangxi Petrochemical has written a chapter in China’s petrochemical industry’s transition from following others to taking the lead.