The Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute explains the \"Plan to Accelerate the Renovation of Old Facilities in the Petrochemical Industry\"

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Accelerating the renovation of old facilities in the petrochemical industry to promote safe, efficient, green, and intelligent development in this sector. In order to speed up the upgrading of old facilities in the petrochemical industry, enhance their intrinsic safety levels, and drive the sector’s advancement toward higher standards of sophistication, intelligence, sustainability, and integration, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the \"Action Plan for Accelerating the Renovation of Old Facilities in the Petrochemical Industry (2026–2029)\\" (hereinafter referred to as the \"Action Plan\"). A team from the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute played a key role in the formulation of this plan. The Action Plan sets out the overall requirements and objectives for the renovation of old facilities in the petrochemical industry. It outlines six key tasks, including conducting ongoing surveys and assessments, formulating renovation plans, promoting quality improvement and upgrading, optimizing project management, ensuring proper acceptance procedures, and strengthening standard-based guidance. It also specifies requirements for enhancing organizational leadership, implementing financial and monetary support policies, and strengthening supervision to ensure these tasks are carried out effectively. Through various measures, the plan aims to accelerate the renovation of old facilities in the petrochemical sector and contribute to its high-quality development. 　　The petrochemical industry is an important foundational and pillar industry of the national economy; it features a large economic scale, extensive use of various equipment and facilities, and broad industrial interconnections, and it is crucial for the safety and stability of industrial chains and supply chains. In China’s petrochemical industry, there are over 27,000 manufacturing enterprises of a certain scale, of which those dealing with hazardous chemicals account for nearly 50%. Some old production facilities that have been in operation for over 20 years suffer from issues such as low design and construction standards, outdated process technologies, limited levels of automation and intelligent control, high consumption of raw materials and energy, high levels of waste and carbon emissions, and low operational efficiency. These problems have a significant negative impact on the stable and safe operation of the industry as well as its high-quality development. Moreover, as time goes by, the number of old devices continues to increase, and the associated risks also keep growing. It is therefore urgent to accelerate the upgrading and replacement of these old devices. 　　Promoting the petrochemical industry to accelerate the upgrading and renovation of old facilities is a key approach to achieving high-quality development alongside high standards of safety. It is an important measure for overcoming bottlenecks in industry development, stimulating internal momentum, and fostering new forms of productive capacity. Such efforts help the industry effectively manage major safety and environmental risks, improve production efficiency and product quality, accelerate green and low-carbon development, strengthen the foundation for high-quality industry growth, and enhance the security and stability of industrial chains and supply chains. 　　I. Systematic and regular scientific advancement in the upgrading and renovation of old facilities In China, the old facilities in the petrochemical industry cover multiple sub-sectors; they are numerous, scattered geographically, and present complex and varied problems. The sub-sectors included in the Action Plan mainly relate to certain categories under the \"Classification of National Economic Industries\" (GB/T 4754—2017), namely 251, 252, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, and 268, as well as 283 and 291. Preliminary investigations show that there are currently over 1,600 old chemical and petrochemical plants across the country, covering various sub-sectors such as oil refining, ethylene production, ammonia synthesis, urea production, sulfuric acid production, and phosphate ammonium production. Nearly 90% of these are enterprises dealing with hazardous chemicals, and it is expected that more sub-sectors, enterprises, and plants will fall into the category of old plants over time. However, when it comes to upgrading old equipment, local areas still face issues such as unclear classification of certain sub-sectors and unknown baseline data. Therefore, it is crucial to clarify the operating scope of old petrochemical and chemical plants, dynamically assess the actual conditions of these old facilities, and formulate scientific renovation plans in order to advance the process of upgrading and renovating such plants. 　　To this end, with regard to the scope of operation of old installations and the assessment of their conditions, the Action Plan stipulates that relevant provincial departments should carry out surveys to identify such old installations. Production facilities that have been in use for more than 20 years should be registered one by one to create a list of old installations. These installations on the list should then be systematically evaluated in light of industry policies, standards, and other requirements, and recommendations regarding actions such as complete replacement, renovation, or phasing out should be made based on their classification, so as to establish a record of efforts to update and renovate these old installations. Annexes 1 and 2 of the Action Plan detail respectively the scope and items for evaluating old equipment, as well as the industrial policies and standard specifications for such evaluations, thereby clarifying the scope of work related to old equipment and the criteria used for evaluation. Regarding the scientific formulation of renovation plans, the Action Plan states that provincial-level authorities should supervise and guide relevant enterprises to develop customized renovation plans for each enterprise, with the completion of such renovations ideally taking no more than 5 years. In addition, the Action Plan sets out specific requirements for phased implementation starting in 2027; by the end of June each year, local authorities are required to update their lists of old facilities and keep records of the work related to the renovation and upgrading of such facilities, with regular annual reports to be submitted. The matters specified in the previous \"Work Plan for the Phasing Out, Retirement, and Renovation of Old Chemical Facilities\" (Emergency [2024] No. 49) shall be implemented in accordance with the original plans and requirements. By carrying out the aforementioned tasks, the Action Plan clarifies and details the specific procedures for upgrading and renovating old equipment, ensuring continuity in policies related to such upgrades and their systematic implementation on an ongoing basis, thereby making the implementation path clearer, more rational, and more feasible. At the same time, the renewal and renovation plans proposed at the corporate level can effectively avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to management, making the device renewal and renovation plans more reasonable and feasible. 　　II. Driving comprehensive quality improvement and upgrading in the industry by upgrading old facilities Due to their long operational history, old facilities present relatively high risks to safety and environmental conditions. Moreover, with the advancement of industry technology, they have significant room for improvement in terms of facility scale, energy efficiency, safety and environmental protection, sustainability, and intelligence compared to newly built facilities. By focusing on the upgrading of old facilities, it is possible to enhance the safety level of these devices while simultaneously promoting improvements in terms of low carbon emissions, sustainability, and intelligence. This approach is of great significance for accelerating the high-quality development of China’s petrochemical industry. 　　To this end, the Action Plan clearly states that enterprises should be encouraged to carry out safety, sustainability, and intelligence upgrades by benchmarking against industry leaders, as well as to accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies and the replacement of industrial software and industrial control systems. In terms of safety upgrades, efforts are being made to accelerate the full-process automation transformation or the use of low-risk alternatives for hazardous processes that are under strict supervision. In terms of green transformation, efforts are made to upgrade production processes in a green manner and to strengthen coordinated measures for reducing pollution and carbon emissions throughout the entire process. Efforts are taken to reduce industrial waste at its source; new projects are required to meet advanced standards regarding energy consumption or to reach benchmark levels of energy efficiency as well as an A-grade level in terms of environmental performance. Strict controls are applied to the total emissions of key pollutants, and projects with high energy consumption and high carbon emissions must implement measures to offset or reduce such emissions. In terms of intelligent transformation, the \"Implementation Guidelines for Digital Transformation in the Petrochemical Industry\" should be implemented; digital transformation in this industry should be promoted through scenario-based and mapping approaches. Enterprises are encouraged to carry out maturity assessments for digital transformation in the petrochemical industry (HG/T 6346-2025) as well as technical upgrades, in conjunction with the renovation of existing facilities, so as to gradually develop a number of smart factories. 　　III. Strengthen high-quality acceptance processes and standard guidance to continuously improve the level of renovation and upgrading. Given the complex and diverse issues associated with old installations, the tasks, difficulties, and requirements involved in carrying out renovation and upgrading efforts vary. It is therefore particularly important to conduct proper acceptance checks for such projects. The focus, criteria, and standards for acceptance should be determined on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, industry standards and norms serve as an important basis, benchmark, and goal for the upgrading and renovation of older installations; they need to be formulated and revised in a timely manner in line with the technological progress and development needs of the industry. By continuously improving the quality requirements of these standards, it is possible to drive the industry’s efforts in upgrading and renovation to a higher level. 　　To this end, regarding the acceptance management of old equipment renovation projects, the \"Action Plan\" sets out specific acceptance management requirements tailored to the characteristics of different types of projects. In accordance with requirements stipulated in laws and regulations such as the Work Safety Law and the Regulations on Environmental Protection Management for Construction Projects, where acceptance is required, enterprises carrying out renovation and upgrading projects shall organize such acceptance processes, while relevant departments such as those responsible for ecological environment and emergency management shall supervise and inspect the acceptance process ； Relevant acceptance and management requirements have also been established for new installations as a whole, those that are phased out, projects involving the release of land, as well as projects that fail to complete the required updates or renovations on time or still do not meet the specified standards after such efforts. In terms of standard setting, the Action Plan proposes to carry out a special initiative to upgrade the standards for existing petrochemical and chemical plants. Focusing on areas such as safety improvement, green transformation, digitalization, and performance enhancement, it aims to establish a standard system that covers all requirements and stages related to the renovation of these old facilities. A range of standards will be developed or revised, including those for safety risk management, pollutant disposal and carbon emissions control, energy consumption, intelligent manufacturing, equipment performance, and resource recycling. These standards will ensure stricter safety requirements, higher levels of energy savings and carbon reduction, as well as technically advanced specifications, thereby providing comprehensive support and guidance for the renovation of existing petrochemical and chemical plants. 　　IV. Strengthen policy support to accelerate the implementation of renovation projects. Compared with new petrochemical and chemical projects, many renovation projects for existing facilities have relatively lower investment levels (with the exception of fully new projects), resulting in modest project returns. This leads to a lack of internal motivation among enterprises to carry out such renovations. Additionally, due to historical factors such as project layout, some enterprises may face issues such as insufficient safety distances, inadequate land space, and complex procedures for obtaining necessary approvals after the renovations, all of which hinder the progress of renovating existing facilities. 　　To this end, the Action Plan puts forward relevant support policies in areas such as project approval management and financial support. Regarding the preliminary procedures for projects, the Action Plan calls on the provincial-level authorities to establish and improve green channels, strengthen the provision of necessary resources, optimize the processes for project registration/approval, environmental impact assessment, land use approval, water allocation, energy efficiency reviews, carbon emission assessments, and safety permits, thereby increasing the efficiency of these review and approval processes and accelerating the implementation of projects. At the same time, it is proposed that when studying the layout of major petrochemical projects, priority should be given to supporting projects aimed at upgrading and modernizing existing facilities such as those for oil refining, ethylene production, p-xylene production, polyphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), and coal-to-methanol production. Regarding fiscal and financial support policies, the Action Plan proposes to make comprehensive use of existing policy funding channels such as those related to the ‘two new’ initiatives, technological innovation, and technical transformation reloans, in order to support the upgrading and renovation of old equipment that meets the relevant criteria. Government investment funds will also be utilized to provide investment support for enterprises. Financial institutions are encouraged to implement credit policies that provide support while also ensuring proper control, and local authorities that meet the relevant conditions are encouraged to use existing funding channels to support the upgrading and renovation of old facilities that qualify for such support. Furthermore, for cases involving the renewal and modernization of central enterprises, it was proposed that corporate annual assessments should take into account the impact of upgrading old equipment on operational performance. Author: Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute