Maoming Petrochemical’s 50,000-ton/year POE industrial pilot plant was successfully commissioned on its first attempt

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The 50,000-ton/year POE industrial test unit at Maoming Petrochemical was successfully commissioned on the first attempt. On April 13, according to industry insiders, the 50,000-ton POE production unit at Maoming Petrochemical was successfully brought online. The total investment for Maoming Petrochemical’s 50,000 tons per year polyolefin elastomer (POE) industrial testing facility project is 998 million yuan. The project involves the construction of a new 50,000 tons per year polyolefin elastomer (POE) industrial testing facility, an intermediate storage area, as well as supporting waste gas treatment facilities. The planned construction period is from March 2023 to March 2025. The main raw materials required for production in this project, such as ethylene, 1-octene, 1-butene, and hydrogen, are produced internally within the chemical plant complex; whereas catalysts, n-hexane, triisobutylaluminum, antioxidant masterbatches, and co-catalysts are purchased from external suppliers. The designed production capacity is 50,000 tons per year, of which 30,000 tons per year are for 1-octene elastomers and 20,000 tons per year for 1-butene elastomers. It is reported that the 50,000 tons per year POE industrial testing facility project at Maoming Petrochemical is Sinopec’s first industrial testing project for polyolefin elastomers developed through independent research. Once operational, it will break foreign companies’ technical monopoly in the POE sector and help ensure autonomy and control over the supply chain for new energy materials. Recently, significant progress has been made on Wanhua Chemical’s 400,000 tons per year polyolefin elastomer project: on the 14th of that month, the Administrative Approval and Service Bureau of Penglai District in Yantai published a pre-approval notice regarding the land use approval for Wanhua Chemical (Penglai) Co., Ltd.’s 400,000 tons per year polyolefin elastomer project (Site 1), as well as for Site 2 of the same project. On June 29, 2024, Wanhua Chemical’s first phase of the project, involving 200,000 tons per year of POE production, was successfully put into operation. The 400,000-ton POE production project at Wanhua Chemical’s Penglai Phase II has begun construction, with completion and operation expected by the end of 2025. By then, Wanhua’s total POE production capacity will reach 600,000 tons per year.