In 2019, over 1.8 million tons of olefin production capacity was brought online, further increasing supply pressures

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In 2019, over 1.8 million tons of olefin production capacity was brought online, further increasing supply pressures. Author/Source: Huahua Net Coal Chemicals. Date: 2019-05-13. Clicks: 37. On May 2, Dalian Hengli’s 450,000 tons per year polypropylene production facility was fully operational and began producing qualified products. Hengli has 3 polypropylene production units: ➤ The first unit, with an annual capacity of 450,000 tons, uses the Unipol gas-phase fluidized bed technology developed by the American company GRACE; the properties of the product are controlled by adjusting the ratio of hydrogen to propylene in the circulating gas, as well as the ratios of the two catalysts used, thereby enabling the production of both homopolymers and copolymers ； ➤The second set of polypropylene plants with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons utilizes Sinopec’s second-generation loop reactor technology for polypropylene production, to manufacture copolymers, random copolymers, and impact copolymers ； ➤The third set of polypropylene plants with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons utilizes the HORIZONE gas-phase polypropylene process technology developed by Japan’s JPP Company (formerly Chisso), and is primarily used to produce standard impact-resistant products as well as special impact-resistant products. The construction work for the polypropylene plant includes 16,986 cubic meters of civil engineering work, 4,200 tons of steel structure installation, 112 units of static equipment, 67 units of dynamic equipment, pipelines with a total length of 128,810 inches, 1,300 cubic meters of insulation material, 150,000 meters of electrical cables, and 165,000 meters of instrument cables. In July 2017, the civil engineering work for the facility began. The Dalian project team of Wujian Company organized everything carefully, with all departments working together to ensure strict control over quality and safety, and by the end of 2017 the pouring of the cabinet room was completed. In March 2018, the installation of the steel structure for the plant’s pipe gallery commenced on a full scale, with large-scale equipment arriving one after another to begin lifting operations. During the installation of large-scale equipment, since the lifting work was to be carried out by another company, the original plan was to use conventional methods. In order to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the Dalian project team communicated multiple times with the owner and other relevant parties, and adopted a modular lifting approach proposed by Wujian. After the equipment arrived, all other auxiliary construction tasks were completed on the ground before the equipment was lifted as a whole. This not only reduced the risks associated with working at heights but also saved on the costs related to using large cranes for lifting and moving the equipment. On April 27, 2019, the feeding trial of the extrusion granulator was successful; on May 2, the plant produced qualified polypropylene, marking the completion of the entire production process. Another set of gas-phase Unipol process units is set to go into operation! The designed production capacity of this facility is 450,000 tons, which represents the largest scale for a single unit using this process technology. To date, 14 polypropylene plants using Unipol technology have been put into operation in China, with the smallest designed capacity being 150,000 tons per year and the largest being 400,000 tons per year. Sinopec has not yet invested in polypropylene production using the Unipol process, while CNPC has set up 4 polypropylene plants utilizing Unipol technology; most of the other projects involve the production of olefins through coal chemical routes. 1. The two polypropylene plants that came online in the first half of 2019 are as follows: The 600,000-ton coal-to-olefins project of Inner Mongolia Jutai Co., Ltd. saw the commissioning of its upstream MTO unit on March 20, with the PP unit following suit; however, no products have been produced yet. The plant has a production capacity of 320,000 tons per year and also uses the Unipol process. With the commissioning of Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical’s second PDH unit, a 150,000-ton/year polypropylene powder production facility was also put into operation at the same time; this facility utilizes SPG process technology. The two additional polypropylene plants scheduled to come online in the first half of 2019 are: in addition to Hengli Refining and Chemical’s polypropylene plant, Dongguan Juzhengyuan’s 600,000-ton-per-year project for producing high-performance polypropylene via propane dehydrogenation. The installation of the product separation tower for this project was completed in January at the Lisha Island Fine Chemicals Park in Shatian Town, with trials planned for May. The designed capacity of this project is a polypropylene plant with an output of 300,000 tons per year, comprising 2 units, both of which utilize Unipol process technology. The Zhongan United PP plant is scheduled to undergo trial operation at the end of the second quarter of 2019, but it has not yet started operating. Zhongan United is located in Anhui Province and is equipped with facilities for producing 350,000 tons per year of linear low-density polyethylene and 350,000 tons per year of polypropylene; the project uses coal as its raw material. The polypropylene unit of this project adopts Sinopec ST’s second-generation loop reactor technology. In 2019, 2 polypropylene plants were put into operation, with a combined designed capacity of 470,000 tons per year. If all the planned projects come online within this year, an additional 1.4 million tons per year in production capacity will be added. In 2019, the growth rate of polypropylene production capacity in China accelerated, leading to further increases in supply-side pressures.