Congratulations! China’s first ethane-to-ethylene project with independent intellectual property rights has been successfully commissioned!

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Beijing, August 3 (Xinhua News Agency) (Liu Wenwen) The Changqing ethane-to-ethylene project at China National Petroleum Corporation’s Lanzhou Petrochemical Company began operations on August 3, producing qualified ethylene products. It is reported that this project is China’s first large-scale ethylene production facility built using the ethane cracking technology for ethylene production independently developed by Sinopec. This project utilizes ethane extracted from the natural gas of the Changqing Oilfield to produce ethylene. Compared with traditional naphtha-based ethylene production methods, it offers numerous advantages such as a shorter process flow, less land usage, lower investment costs for the facilities, higher yields of ethylene, and reduced production costs. It plays a significant role in optimizing the utilization of natural gas resources, improving China’s ethylene production technology, promoting the high-quality development of the ethylene industry, as well as achieving integration across the value chain and the localization of key large-scale equipment such as the \"three ethylene machines\" and DCS control systems. It is understood that this project has been designated as a **demonstration project for producing ethylene through ethane cracking. It overcomes the limitations associated with traditional ethylene production, such as high energy and material consumption as well as low yields of ethylene. The yield of ethylene can be increased from around 30% to 80% based on cracked naphtha, while the overall energy consumption is reduced to 398.7 kilograms of standard oil per ton – levels that represent world-class technical and economic standards. This project serves as a model for helping China’s ethylene industry transition from a role of catching up to one of leading the world. This project truly achieves environmental protection, sustainability, and low carbon emissions: the pyrolysis furnace system utilizes a new flue gas denitration technology, which reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 70% compared to conventional pyrolysis furnace systems, thereby enabling ultra-low levels of waste gas emissions ； By employing catalytic oxidation for the treatment of waste alkali, along with new technologies such as ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and evaporation crystallization, deep reuse of wastewater is achieved, with a reuse rate of over 95%; this makes it the first refining project in China National Petroleum Corporation to achieve nearly zero wastewater discharge. After the project is put into operation, the carbon dioxide emissions will be approximately 342,400 tons per year, while the annual total energy consumption will be 755,200 tons of standard coal (excluding ethane as a raw material), which represents an advanced level on a global scale. (End) Source: China News Network