【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 2038 to 2026, China’s first fully domesticated, end-to-end industrial plant for producing 100,000 tons per year of POE (polyolefin elastomer) using the solution process was put into commission at Tianjin Petrochemical for joint testing

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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Regular updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** On March 22, reporters learned from the news office of Sinopec that China’s first industrial plant for producing POE (polyolefin elastomer) on a scale of 100,000 tons per year using a fully domesticated solution-based process has reached a critical stage in its commissioning process at Tianjin Petrochemical. Building on the successful operation of Maoming Petrochemical’s first 50,000-ton/year POE industrial demonstration plant with entirely independent intellectual property rights, this set of technologies has enabled the domestic production of all components in the entire chain – including catalysts, process technologies, equipment, and automation systems. Meanwhile, Sinopec is accelerating the construction of a 100,000-ton/year POE plant at Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company, indicating that domestic production technology for POE using the solution method has entered a phase of widespread expansion. POE is known as the \"industrial gold\"; thanks to its high elasticity, low density, ease of processing and recycling, as well as strong weather resistance, it plays a key role in various strategic emerging industries such as photovoltaics and new energy vehicles. China’s POE consumption increased from 640,000 tons in 2021 to 1.11 million tons by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of over 14.7%. This has made China one of the largest POE consumption markets in the world, accounting for approximately 38% of global POE consumption. However, due to extremely high technical barriers, China has long relied on imports for POE products, with an import dependence rate of around 76% in 2025. Leveraging its advantage of large-scale operations, Sinopec has, since 2012, organized the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology to carry out relevant research work, and subsequently developed engineering technologies to overcome various technical and engineering challenges related to catalysts, polymerization processes, and more. In particular, the proprietary metallocene catalysts feature high activity and low cost; by controlling the process conditions, it is possible to produce POE products with various structural properties in a stable manner. The proprietary devolatilization technology ensures that the VOC content of these products remains low, with odor levels that are among the best in the industry. This provides downstream manufacturing industries with high-performance, low-cost raw materials, thereby ensuring the security of the entire supply chain. With the entry into the joint commissioning phase, the local production rate of equipment for Tianjin Petrochemical’s POE plant has risen to 99%, which has contributed to an improvement in the level of domestic production of key equipment for high-performance synthetic materials, thereby ensuring full autonomy and control over POE technology. In the future, with the commissioning of POE plants at Tianjin Petrochemical and Zhenhai Refining & Chemical, Sinopec will have an annual POE production capacity of 250,000 tons. This will help increase China’s self-sufficiency rate in the POE industry by approximately 23%, bringing the reliance on POE imports down to around 53%. The process of domestic production will thus reach a crucial turning point. “During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Sinopec made significant efforts to develop new chemical materials; its current business scope includes three types of high-end synthetic materials, engineering plastics, high-performance membrane materials, and specialty chemicals. By 2025, the production of new chemical materials by Sinopec will reach 3.64 million tons.