Zhejiang Zhoushan Project to Build a 1,000-ton-scale Pilot Plant for Polyolefin Elastomers (POE)
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On May 21, 2024, the Zhoushan Ecology and Environment Bureau (Daishan Branch) issued a announcement regarding its intended decision on the environmental impact assessment report for Zhejiang Zhiying New Materials Co., Ltd.’s pilot-scale polyolefin elastomer (POE) production facility project. Construction location: Daishan New Material Research and Experiment Base, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Daishan County. Constructor: Zhejiang Zhiying New Materials Co., Ltd. The investment for this project amounts to 53.5176 million yuan; it involves renting Workshop No. 11 at the Daishan New Material Research and Experiment Base, with a total construction area of 1,147 square meters. Equipment such as batch stirred reactors, flash tanks, solvent tanks, distillation tanks, and distillation columns will be purchased to establish a pilot-scale production facility for polyolefin elastomers (POE) with a capacity of thousands of tons. The public display will be held on the website of the Daishan Branch of the Zhoushan Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau from May 20, 2024, to May 28, 2024. Zhejiang Zhiying New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhiying New Materials”) was established on June 25, 2021. Located on Xufu Avenue in Gaoting Town, Daishan County, Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, the company is engaged in the manufacturing and sales of synthetic materials, as well as in the research and development of new material technologies and pilot-scale production. It is an innovative technology company dedicated to the development and application of new materials, material modification, and end-product sales. This project is a pilot-scale research and development project in the chemical industry. It will be carried out in the existing workshops at the Daishan New Materials Research and Testing Base of the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences; no new land area will be required for this project, and all related auxiliary facilities will make use of those already available at the base. The main focus of this project is the pilot-scale research and development of polyolefin elastomers (POE). The objectives of this research include: building on the production processes and catalysts identified through experiments during the lab-scale testing using processes such as solution polymerization, suspension polymerization, and gas-phase polymerization, as well as catalysts such as Ziegler-Natta series catalysts and metallocene catalysts, to study the stability of the process of producing POE products through high-temperature solution polymerization using metallocene catalysts on a larger scale. At the same time, the production conditions for polyolefin elastomers (POE) will be optimized in order to further increase their yield and productivity. This project aims to accumulate experience in POE production, providing theoretical data that can serve as a foundation for large-scale manufacturing.
Layout of Zoushan α-olefins and POE projects: 1. Rongsheng New Materials (Zoushan) Jintang New Materials Project. Constructor: Rongsheng New Materials (Zoushan) Co., Ltd. Location: Jintang Island, Dinghai District, Zoushan City. Total investment: 76 billion yuan. Scope of construction: Construction of a 600,000-ton/year propane dehydrogenation unit, a 3 million tons/year catalytic cracking unit, a 1 million tons/year gas separation unit, a 600,000-ton/year aromatic extraction complex, a 300,000-ton/year PEO unit, a 1 million tons/year EVA complex, a 200,000-ton/year POE unit, 400,000/250,000-ton/year phenol propylene units, a 200,000-ton/year 1,3-propanediol unit, 400,000/880,000-ton/year PO/SM units, a 400,000-ton/year PTT unit, a 500,000-ton/year isobutane normalization unit, a 600,000-ton/year maleic anhydride unit, a 500,000-ton/year BDO unit, a 200,000-ton/year PBS unit, a 400,000-ton/year PBT unit, a 120,000-ton/year isobutylene unit, a 180,000-ton/year butene oxidation dehydrogenation unit, a 150,000-ton/year CO₂ recovery unit, a 160,000-ton/year ethoxylation unit, a 200,000-ton/year DMC unit, a 480,000-ton/year polyether polyol unit, a 1.2 million tons/year ABS unit, 2×240,000-ton/year bisphenol A units, 2×260,000-ton/year polycarbonate units, a 100,000-ton/year CHDM unit, a 100,000-ton/year PCT unit, a 100,000-ton/year PCTG unit, a 50,000-ton/year UHMWPE unit, 2×450,000-ton/year PP units, a 300,000-ton/year α-olefins unit, a 600,000-ton/year polyurethane elastomer unit, a 140,000 standard cubic meters/hour coal-to-hydrogen unit, and 2×20,000-ton/year sulfuric acid units, among other production facilities. 2. Zhejiang Petrochemical’s high-end new materials project: With an estimated investment of 64.1 billion yuan, this project aims to improve the efficiency of the facilities associated with the 40 million tons per year integrated refining and chemical processing plant. It involves the construction of new facilities including a 4 million tons per year catalytic cracking unit, a 350,000 tons per year α-olefin unit, 2 × 200,000 tons per year POE polyolefin elastomer units, an 80,000 tons per year polybutylene-1 unit, a 1 million tons per year acetic acid unit, 2 × 300,000 tons per year vinyl acetate units, a 300,000 tons per year EVA/LDPE (tubular) unit, 2 × 150,000 tons per year adipic acid units, a 250,000 tons per year adiponitrile unit, a 280,000 tons per year hexamethylenediamine unit, a 500,000 tons per year nylon 66 salt unit, a 600,000 tons per year maleic anhydride unit, a 500,000 tons per year 1,4-butanediol unit, a 200,000 tons per year PBS unit, a 120,000 tons per year poly**furan unit, a 30,000 tons per year NMP unit, a 270,000 tons per year nitric acid unit, a 660,000 tons per year acrylonitrile unit, a 200,000 tons per year SAR unit, a 300,000 standard cubic meters per hour CO2 reforming unit, a 1 million tons per year methanol unit, a 600,000 tons per year synthetic ammonia unit, and a 240,000 tons per year bisphenol A unit, along with various related utility facilities. On August 24, 2023, Zhejiang Petrochemical’s 1,000-ton/year α-olefin pilot plant was successfully commissioned for the first time, producing high-quality 1-hexene with a purity of 99.456%. Using the existing ethylene plant at Zhejiang Petrochemical as a source of raw materials, and through joint development by Zhejiang Zhiying Petrochemical Technology Co., Ltd. and various universities, catalysts and production processes for the selective trimerization and tetramerization of ethylene to produce 1-hexene and 1-octene have been developed, representing an achievement of independent research and development in China.