【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】The world’s largest ethylbenzene production plant using dilute ethylene dry gas achieved successful commissioning between 2016 and 2023
Thread Content
Ten years of rapid development in chemical technology – praising the prosperity and strength of modern China. This is just a starting point; more participation from everyone will make things even more lively. Haichuan becomes even better with your involvement; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. The fragrance of rice flowers in August ----------------------------------------- In August 2023, the 424,000 tons per year ethylbenzene production facility at Anqing Petrochemical, designed by Guangzhou Engineering Company, was successfully commissioned and began producing qualified products. It is the world’s largest facility of its kind, built using Sinopec’s own dry gas-based technology for ethylbenzene production. The device utilizes the complete set of technology for producing ethylbenzene from dry gas, developed through collaboration between the Shanghai Research Institute and Guangzhou Engineering Company and other entities, as well as the complete set of technology for producing styrene via negative-pressure adiabatic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene, developed through cooperation among the Shanghai Research Institute, Shanghai Engineering Company, and East China University of Science and Technology. The dilute ethylene feed for the ethylbenzene unit at Anqing Petrochemical comes from Sinopec’s own 3 million tons per year heavy oil catalytic cracking unit, which enables the value-added conversion and effective utilization of catalytic dry gas.
The design team at Guangzhou Engineering Company adhered to principles of integrity and innovation while carrying out comprehensive optimization. In light of challenges such as large plant scale, long process flows, complex heat exchange networks, and a large number of large-scale equipment, they improved various aspects by strengthening communication with the client, fostering close collaboration among different teams, and pursuing meticulous design work. They optimized processes for efficient and low-energy raw material preprocessing and separation, multi-stage reactor feeding systems, the distributors in large-scale alkylation reactors, and the layout of the plant in compact spaces. By adopting new processes and technologies such as high-efficiency heat exchangers, energy optimization strategies that make use of energy at multiple levels, positive-pressure coiled-tube heat carrier heating furnaces, full-coverage gas leak detection systems, and comprehensive fire prevention and isolation interlock systems, they significantly enhanced the technical competitiveness and safety of the plant, delivering satisfactory results for the restructuring of Anqing Petrochemical’s refining and conversion operations. The successful commissioning of this facility represents another large-scale industrial application of the technology for producing ethylbenzene through the alkylation of dilute ethylene, further increasing the scale of such facilities. It enables the high-value utilization of dilute ethylene resources, and holds great significance for promoting the high-value and green, low-carbon utilization of dry gas generated as a by-product in refineries, as well as for facilitating the transformation of Anqing Petrochemical’s energy structure.
【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】From 2017 to 2023, Chinese scientists achieved precise total synthesis of sugar from carbon dioxide https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-4800138-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Industry Forum)