Thread Content
The handover of the renovation project for Yulin Refinery’s 2.2 million tons per year atmospheric distillation unit was completed recently, as scheduled. The project to upgrade this unit and its associated facilities, designed by Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co., Ltd., was finished on time and successfully. This project aims to meet the processing needs of Yulin Refinery’s imported crude oil by carrying out adaptive modifications to the existing 1.5 million tons per year atmospheric pressure unit, thereby further improving its technical level and processing capacity. In this renovation, the equipment and pipelines within the plant have been designed to handle high-sulfur acidic crude oil (with a sulfur content of ≥1w% and an acid number of <0.5mgKOH/g), enabling the plant to process Russian ESPO crude oil. The atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit performs a preliminary separation of crude oil, primarily producing materials for reforming (naphtha), diesel hydrogenation (diesel fractions), catalytic cracking (wax oil, atmospheric residue), and kerosene blending (vacuum residue), thereby supplying raw materials for subsequent units. Contracts signed for 200,000 tons of BDO and 300,000 tons of PBAT production in Yunnan On September 3, 2023, the China Industrial Transfer and Development Forum (Yunnan) – an event focused on expanding, strengthening, and optimizing the petrochemical and chemical industry chains – was held in Chuxiong Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan. During the event, the Management Committee of Lufeng Industrial Park signed an investment agreement worth 6 billion yuan with Yunnan Meinen New Materials Co., Ltd. for the construction of a new plant capable of producing 200,000 tons per year of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and 300,000 tons per year of biodegradable plastic PBAT. The implementation of this project will fill the gaps in Yunnan’s industries related to chemicals, new energy, and environmentally friendly new materials. Hebei Siyou announces α-olefin project: Recently, Hebei Siyou Secarbornene New Materials Co., Ltd. announced its plan to build a new facility with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of α-olefins. The total investment in this project is 1,890.43 million yuan; it is located in the Cangzhou Lingang Economic and Technological Development Zone, covering an area of about 220 mu. Construction content: Phase 1 project with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of α-olefins ； Phase II project with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of α-olefins (accompanied by a 360,000-ton propane dehydrogenation unit). In the first phase, oligoolefins are produced from propylene; in the second phase, propylene is generated through propane dehydrogenation, which is then used to produce oligoolefins. The pilot production of the 1-million-ton coal chemical project in Xinjiang is set to begin in October next year. It has been reported that the integrated project for the annual production of 1 million tons of carboxylic acids and their downstream products, invested in by Xinjiang Zhonghe Hezhong New Materials Co., Ltd., is being developed in an orderly manner, with all its process systems under construction. 70% of the civil construction work for the project has been completed, with the aim of finishing all civil construction for the main facilities by the end of October. Some equipment is arriving now for installation. The pipeline installation for a large number of devices will be carried out at the end of the year or next spring. Trial production is expected to take place in October next year. The 600,000-ton/year styrene plant of Zhejiang Petrochemical has begun producing qualified products. On the evening of September 5, Rongsheng Petrochemical announced that the 600,000-ton/year styrene plant built by the company’s subsidiary, Zhejiang Petrochemical Co., Ltd., in the Zhoushan Green Petrochemical Base, has recently started producing qualified products. The company’s styrene production facility utilizes the well-established ethylbenzene dehydrogenation process. With the commissioning of this facility, the company’s total styrene production capacity reaches 2.5 million tons per year; its capacity per plant is the highest in the country, accounting for over 10% of China’s total production capacity. The pilot project for methyl methacrylate (MMA) at Yan’an Nenghua commenced on September 5th; the construction work at the site of Yan’an Nenghua Company in Shaanxi Province’s Yanchang area for this MMA pilot project has started. At the pilot project site, the construction team is carrying out work on the foundation of the equipment, while the prefabrication and anti-corrosion coating of pipelines are progressing in an orderly manner as planned. Yan’an Energy Chemical Co., Ltd. has partnered with CNOOC Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and New Materials (Beijing) Co., Ltd. To take advantage of its own resources in terms of syngas and ethylene, it has developed a two-step process for producing methyl methacrylate (MMA) from ethylene. This process was tested on an industrial scale, and the corresponding process specifications were prepared. As a result, the most technically and economically efficient method for producing MMA was identified, enabling the domestic use of this technology for the production of methyl methacrylate via ethylene carbonylation. This provides technical support for oil refining and chemical industry companies to make more effective use of low-carbon olefin resources.