【Haichuan Project Updates】Switch from propane to ethane as feedstock; EIA announcement for the diversification of feedstocks at Yantai Wanhua’s 1 million tons/year ethylene plant

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On June 11, the draft environmental impact assessment report for the project aimed at diversifying the raw materials used in Wanhua Chemical (Yantai) Petrochemical Co., Ltd.’s 1 million tons per year ethylene production facility was made public for comments. According to the environmental impact assessment information, this renovation is mainly driven by the continuous rise in propane prices, which has led to a rapid decline in the profitability of the ethylene plant and resulted in operating losses. Following this renovation, the raw material has been changed from propane to ethane, allowing for flexible adjustments based on the prices of upstream raw materials. Furthermore, the ethane-to-ethylene process has a higher yield, enabling cost reduction and improved efficiency. The aforementioned ethylene plant is primarily part of Wanhua Polyurethanes’ integrated ethylene project within its industrial chain. The first phase of this ethylene project came online in November 2020. This includes facilities such as 400,000 tons per year of PVC, 450,000 tons per year of LLDPE, 150,000 tons per year of ethylene oxide, 300,000/650,000 tons per year of PO/SM, and 50,000 tons per year of butadiene production; there is also an upstream facility for producing 1 million tons per year of ethylene.