【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】The world’s first industrial demonstration plant for supergravity alkylization of sulfuric acid was successfully commissioned from 192 to 2021
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Ten years of rapid development in chemical technology – praise for China’s prosperity and strength. This is just a starting point; more participation from everyone will make things even more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with you here; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. It’s hot in July, so be careful to prevent fires. ------------------------------------------- Alkylated oils are key components for producing gasoline that meets or exceeds Grade VI standards. In the past two years, significant progress has been made in the industrial application and promotion of alkylsulfuric acid technology with independent intellectual property rights in our country. To improve the quality of gasoline more efficiently, Liaoyang Petrochemical Company, in collaboration with the Petrochemical Research Institute, Lanzhou Global Engineering Co., Ltd., and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, developed a set of supergravity reaction and separation technologies. By utilizing the existing 160,000 tons per year alkylation production facility and related infrastructure at Liaoyang Petrochemical Company, a pilot industrial-scale project with a capacity of thousands of tons was established. During the project construction period, Liaoyang Petrochemical Company formulated plans in a scientific manner, was deeply involved in every stage of the construction process, fully implemented various safety measures at the work site, strengthened site management, and ensured high standards of project quality. During the commissioning phase of the facility, local officials and employees remain on site to ensure strict safety measures, implement responsibilities at each level, and guarantee a safe, environmentally friendly, smooth, and controlled entire process. On August 10, 2021, the world’s first 1,000-ton/year ultra-gravity alkylsulfate production demonstration unit, developed independently by CNPC, was successfully commissioned for the first time at Liaoyang Petrochemical Company. This marks a breakthrough in overcoming the limitations of traditional technologies in the large-scale application of the supergravity reaction and separation system pioneered by Sinopec; it has led to innovations in both process methods and core equipment, thereby establishing an alkylsulfate production technology route that can compete with international advanced levels.
Lanzhou Huanguo Company, a Beijing-based project management firm, has long been active in the petrochemical sector; it possesses extensive experience in the design and construction of alkylation units, as well as its own proprietary technology for carbon tetraalkylation using the sulfuric acid method. Leveraging its years of technical expertise and internal capabilities, it was responsible for giving concrete form to the technologies provided by the Petrochemical Research Institute in this major technical project, as well as for organizing and carrying out industrial pilot tests on supergravity liquid acid alkylation. Based on the actual conditions of this technical trial, the company reviewed all the alkylation units within its group company that have been responsible for design work in recent years, and selected the Liaoyang Petrochemical alkylation unit as the platform for this experiment, in order to \"share\" the process and utility systems and thereby improve the efficiency of project implementation. With the strong support of Liaoyang Petrochemical, preliminary design work was carried out taking advantage of the downtime for plant maintenance; the pipeline connections were prepared to enable integration with the side-line testing unit. The company carefully studied and incorporated the technical solutions proposed by the Petrochemical Research Institute. It conducted repeated calculations and thorough planning for every aspect (such as the supergravity reactor system, the sedimentation and separation system, the automation control of the equipment, and equipment reliability) as well as for all process parameters, in line with the technical requirements, to ensure compliance with the ideas outlined in the technical solutions and to achieve the goal of validating those technologies. To prevent construction from affecting the existing equipment in the surrounding area, the company used 3D software for modular design, which enabled the various equipment components to be assembled outside the site before being installed there. This approach reduced the need for welding work on site and ensured that the construction progress remained under control.