PetroChina Sichuan to set up new para-xylene complex

11 Jul '08

4 min read

New complex will produce 600 thousand metric tons per year of new para-xylene capacity to China, where demand is expected to grow at an annual rate of 11 percent over the next 10 years

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that PetroChina Sichuan Petrochemical Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the PetroChina Company Limited, has selected UOP to supply technology, basic engineering services and equipment for a new integrated refining and petrochemicals complex to be installed at its facility near Chengdu,Sichuan Province.

Engineering design is currently in progress.“This project is a true collaboration between PetroChina and UOP and will be one of the most integrated facilities in the world,” said Peter Piotrowski, senior vice president for UOP's Process Technology and Equipment business unit. “UOP is excited to be involved as the main licensor. We have a long relationship with PetroChina and have designed many plants for them in several locations.”

The new plant is a grass roots installation that will produce both fuels and petrochemicals, including 600 thousand metric tons per annum of para-xylene using the UOP ParexTM process. Paraxylene is a key ingredient in the production of PTA (purified terephthalic acid), which is used to make polyester for fabric and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) chips for carbonated soft drink and water bottles. The new plant will also produce more than 350 thousand metric tons per annum of benzene, also a building block in plastics production. The demand for para-xylene in China is expected to grow at an annual rate of 11 percent over the next 10 years driven largely by the downstream market.

Feedstock to the aromatics complex will in part be provided by a new UOP Unicracking process unit that will process 2.2 million tons per year of heavy gas oil from crude oil and convert it to more usable products such as diesel, kerosene, and naphtha. The para-xylene complex will also include a UOP CCR Platforming process unit to convert naphtha to aromatics and hydrogen, a UOP Isomar process unit to convert other xylenes to para-xylene, and a UOP Tatoray process unit to increase the yield of para-xylene and benzene.

This will be the fifth aromatics complex UOP has designed for PetroChina and the sixth Unicracking unit.With 2.69 million barrels per day of crude production and 4.6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is China's largest producer and supplier of energy. PetroChina is the largest subsidiary of CNPC and is responsible for its domestic operations in the areas of oil and gas exploration and development, oil refining and petrochemical production, marketing, pipeline transportation, and natural gas sales and utilization.

UOP LLC, headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA, is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, process plants and consultingservices to the petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries. UOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. and is part of

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