Progress on the relocation, upgrading, and transformation project of Baling Petrochemical’s 600,000-ton per year caprolactam production facility!

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The air compression station for the air separation unit in Baling Petrochemical’s project for the relocation, upgrading, and transformation of its production capacity of 600,000 tons per year of caprolactam is an important utility facility. It is responsible for supplying process air and instrument air to various units before the new gasification air separation unit starts operating, as well as during periods when the unit is shut down for maintenance; it also continues to supply some of this air after the unit begins operation. The unit was handed over on February 27 of this year, and starting from March 1, purging work was carried out on the plant air and instrument air pipelines for each unit, enabling it to supply air to external pipelines. On May 15, the first boiler in the power station of the Baling Petrochemical’s project for the relocation, upgrading, and transformation of its production line for 600,000 tons per year of caprolactam was successfully started up after its initial ignition, marking the full entry of the power station construction phase into the hot commissioning stage. Activities such as purging and testing of high-pressure steam pipelines as well as air separation unit pipelines were carried out, laying the foundation for the full-scale trial operation of the project. The power plant for the Baling Petrochemical caprolactam production chain relocation project is one of the auxiliary utility systems associated with this project; it is responsible for supplying steam of various grades, deionized water, and electricity to the newly built caprolactam production facilities. It consists mainly of 4 high-temperature and high-pressure coal-fired boilers with a capacity of 480 tons each, 3 steam turbine generators with a capacity of 50 megawatts each, as well as accompanying desulfurization, denitrification, and dust removal systems. The construction of this facility was carried out by Sinopec’s Fifth Construction Company; work on the civil structure began on June 30, 2021, while the installation of the steel structure started on September 10. Among them, the drum of Boiler No. 3 was hoisted into place on November 30, 2021 ； The hydrostatic test was completed on June 1, 2022 ； On March 30, 2023, an intermediate handover was completed, marking the entry into the production preparation phase. The other units will be delivered one after another in the near future, and commissioned in accordance with the project construction schedule. The Power Division of the Baling Petrochemical Caprolactam Relocation Project Team, together with Sinopec’s Fifth Construction Company, set the goal of \"successful first ignition of the boiler on schedule.\" A specialized plan was developed to oversee the progress, and by identifying the five main systems involved – the boiler itself, the utility systems in the boiler area, the steam turbine deaeration and feedwater systems, the electrical distribution system, the desulfurization system, and the automated control and IT fire alarm systems – work responsibilities were defined, debugging plans were established, and addressing \"bottleneck\" issues was regarded as a key priority. The schedule was detailed down to the day.