Public announcement on the approval application for Hebei HNA Petrochemical New Materials Co., Ltd.’s project to produce 800,000 tons of butyl octanol per year and related facilities

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On December 30, 2024, a public disclosure of information was made prior to the submission for approval of the environmental impact assessment for Hebei HNA Petrochemical New Materials Co., Ltd.’s project to produce 800,000 tons of butyl octanol per year and related facilities (Phase I). Hebei HNA Petrochemical New Materials Co., Ltd. is located in the Petrochemical Materials Park of Hengde Industrial Park, Hebei Jingxian High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Hengshui City, Hebei Province. It operates one propane dehydrogenation unit with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons. This facility includes a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) production area, storage tank areas, a vehicle loading/unloading area, and circulation ponds. Propane derived from associated gas in oil fields is used as raw material to produce propylene; the plant can generate 500,000 tons of propylene per year, along with 23,450 tons of by-products of type C4+. To meet the needs of the company’s business development and to extend its industrial chain, HNA Petrochemical plans to invest 2,426,560,000 yuan to build the \"Hebei HNA Petrochemical New Materials Co., Ltd. – 800,000-ton per year production facility for butyl octanol and related products\" using propylene as raw material. The project will be constructed in two phases; once completed, it will be able to produce 800,000 tons of butyl octanol, 120,000 tons of neopentyl glycol, and 6,400 tons of sulfur per year. Upon completion of the first phase, it will be able to produce 400,000 tons of butyl octanol and 3,200 tons of sulfur per year. The annual production capacity of 800,000 tons of butyl octanol and related products for Hebei HNA Petrochemical New Materials Co., Ltd. (Phase I of the project) requires a total investment of 2,426,560,000 yuan, of which 50,000,000 yuan is allocated to environmental protection measures. The plant will produce 50,000 tons of n-butanol, 350,000 tons of isooctanol, and 0.320,000 tons of sulfur per year; it will also generate 43,000 tons of CO gas and 45,000 tons of isobutyraldehyde per year as by-products. The main construction involves one production line for butyl octanol with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons (of which 350,000 tons are octanol and 50,000 tons are butanol). This includes one gasification unit with a capacity of 70,000 Nm3/h (CO+H2), one purification unit with the same capacity, a sulfur recovery unit with an annual capacity of 3,200 tons, and the butyl octanol production facility itself. The proposed project will use coal as a raw material to produce syngas, which will then be used, along with the company’s existing propylene and syngas, to manufacture butyl octanol through the propylene carbonylation process. The project was filed with the Provincial Development and Reform Commission on December 21. On April 10, 2024, Nanjing Yanchang Reaction Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. and Haiwei Petrochemical Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement for the \"400,000-ton per line microinterface butyl octanol\" project. Zhang Caili, Deputy Secretary-General of the Nanjing Municipal Government, Tao Lei, member of the Party Working Committee and deputy director of the Management Committee of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area, and Chen Yi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended the signing ceremony and delivered speeches. It is reported that the 400,000-ton per line microinterfacial butyl octanol project utilizes the world’s most advanced butyl octanol production technology package, which features the lowest pressure, lowest investment, lowest energy consumption, lowest costs, and highest efficiency. This technology represents a true advancement in terms of efficiency, low carbon emissions, and sustainability, overcoming the technical constraints that have hindered butyl octanol production.