【Haichuan Chemical Salary News】Xinhua News Agency explores the “cutting-edge technologies” for environmental protection in super-large chemical plants”

“\"Cutting-edge technology“ No. 1: Look – fewer but taller chimneys. In the Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park, 7 white and green chimneys rise high into the sky, arranged in an orderly manner. The tallest chimney here is 180 meters high, nearly twice as tall as those in ordinary chemical plants. According to the staff, Hengli Petrochemical has more than 50 heating furnaces. In traditional chemical plants, each heating furnace is equipped with its own chimney; initially, Hengli’s plant was also designed to have dozens of chimneys. However, through optimized design and innovative integration of the flue gas emission system, Hengli installed electric-bag composite dual dust collectors on these tall chimneys. This approach not only ensures compliance with emission standards but also improves the appearance of the plant, which used to be characterized by numerous chimneys, while simultaneously facilitating the dispersion of flue gas.

“\"Black technology\" No. 2: Smell – there are \"tricks\" even when there’s no odor. Employees at Hengli Petrochemical told reporters that the so-called \"odor from chemical plants\" stems mainly from leaks at tens of thousands of static sealing points, that is, various connection points; even a small leak can result in a strong odor. ”A set of chemical processing units typically has tens of thousands of static sealing points, while the dozens of units owned by Hengli Petrochemical have millions of such sealing points. High-standard procurement is practiced: for equipment and materials such as valves, flanges, and gaskets, the best-quality brands from around the world are selected. Each valve is equipped with a label indicating its installation date, the name of the person who performed the installation, etc., enabling full tracking throughout the construction process. Although it was confirmed that all bolts were properly tightened during construction, before the project went into operation, Hengli Petrochemical spent tens of millions of yuan to hire a professional company to use advanced equipment to tighten all the bolts simultaneously, to ensure absolute reliability.

The Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian Changxing Island) Industrial Park as captured by a drone on May 17. Photo by Pan Yulong, Xinhua News Agency reporter

“\"Black Technology\" No. 3: Question – How can water and energy be saved? “The project saves approximately 40 million tons of fresh water each year, and it is also able to generate an additional 16 million tons of fresh water for use in daily life and production. ”Peng Guangqin, deputy general manager of Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd., said that the \"cutting-edge technology\" involved here is the use of the low-temperature waste heat generated during the operation of chemical plants for seawater desalination. Hengli Petrochemical has developed innovative methods for the integrated utilization of low-temperature waste heat, as well as preheating, power generation, refrigeration, and seawater desalination – technologies that enable the comprehensive use of water resources and energy; these methods allow for the savings of up to 1.2 million tons of standard coal per year. The park supplies seven grades of steam at a rate of 5,000 tons per hour, enabling efficient hierarchical utilization of energy. Integrated embedded sewage treatment systems, nitrogen-air systems for storage tanks, fully enclosed coal transport pipelines… Hengli Petrochemical’s numerous green development innovations, although requiring additional investment, have reduced emissions during the production process and improved the environmental sustainability of its products. Moreover, they have paved the way for a new development model for large-scale offshore petrochemical projects in China—one that features environmental protection, low energy consumption, and high productivity.

Haven’t been there, but it’s still worth giving Hengli Petrochemical a rating. But based on the reporter’s explanation, let’s clarify some points. 1. Hengli Petrochemical has over 50 heating furnaces. In traditional chemical plants, each set of heating furnaces is equipped with its own chimney; initially, this plant was also designed to have dozens of chimneys. As we know, oil refining facilities have dozens of industrial furnaces, and usually these furnaces share one chimney or the furnaces from adjacent facilities share one chimney – so how could there be dozens of chimneys? 2. Typically, chimneys are 120 to 140 meters tall; chimneys designed for constant force can reach 180 meters in height, but this only speeds up the rate of emissions without reducing the amount of emissions produced.

Integrated refining and processing – crude oil is utilized to the fullest extent. The Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park has a terminal that can accommodate two 300,000-ton capacity cargo ships simultaneously. After arriving on shore, crude oil travels through pipelines and passes through various units such as atmospheric and vacuum distillation, naphtha hydrogenation, jet fuel production, wax oil processing, residue treatment, reforming, aromatics integration, light hydrocarbon recovery, and dehydrogenation, ultimately resulting in the production of dozens of chemical products. In the past, to produce such a wide variety of products, it was often necessary to build separate refining plants in different locations. Today, production can be carried out within these 15 square kilometers of factory area. In this project, 70% of each ton of crude oil is converted into petrochemical products, while the remaining part becomes by-products such as gasoline and diesel. In simple terms, integrated refining means making use of every drop of crude oil within this industrial complex to the fullest extent possible.

Hydrogenation technology is used for the first time in the country, increasing the utilization rate of crude oil by 5%. In this project, a fluidized bed residue hydrogenation unit is employed for the first time, which enables an increase in the utilization rate of crude oil by 5 percentage points. Based on the fact that the Hengli Refining Project can process 20 million tons of crude oil per year, this means that for the same amount of investment, an additional 1 million tons of crude oil can be processed each year. A new seawater cooling process that saves coal and water while still enabling power generation. Traditional oil refineries need to build large cooling towers to cool industrial hot water, but in this facility, no such cooling towers are visible at all, as seawater is used directly for cooling purposes. The heat removed by seawater cooling should not be wasted either; this heat is utilized through special devices for power generation, refrigeration, and seawater desalination. Such a design allows for the saving of 1.2 million tons of coal and 40 million tons of fresh water per year, while also increasing the production of fresh water by 16 million tons.

High environmental standards are required; wastewater treatment that allows fish farming – aside from high technology, the ultimate goal is green mountains and rivers, as well as blue skies and seas. The project is located by the sea, so industrial wastewater treatment is of particular concern. After passing through the wastewater treatment system, the water in the discharge tank from this project can be used for fish farming. (CCTV reporters Yan Qifeng and Lang Yichen)

LDAR technology is widely used for assessing leaks at the dynamic and static sealing points of equipment in petrochemical enterprises

It’s great to have a spirit of questioning; what he might be asking is whether several heating units can share one chimney