Hengli lets contract for polypropylene unit at Dalian complex

Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co. Ltd. (HPDC) has let a contract to W.R. Grace & Co. to provide polypropylene (PP) technology and associated polyolefin catalyst supply for a PP unit to be built at its integrated 20 million-tonne/year crude-to-paraxylene refining and petrochemical project in Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park (HPIP) on Changxing Island in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China (OGJ Online, Mar. 8, 2016).

As part of the contract, Grace will supply licensing for its proprietary Unipol PP process technology and supply its SHAC Ziegler Natta PP catalyst for the new dual-reactor PP unit, which will produce 450,000 tpy of homopolymer, random copolymer, and impact copolymer thermoplastic resins.

The PP unit is scheduled for startup sometime in 2019, Grace said.

HPDC, which broke ground on the Dalian crude-to-paraxylene refining complex in late 2015, plans to invest a total of 74 billion yuan to complete the integration project, which is the largest refinery project in China ever to be approved.

A subsidiary of Hengli Group, Wujiang, Jiangsu Province, China, HPDC commissioned the first two 2.2 million-tpy PTA production lines of HPIP’s Phase 1 development in September 2012 and Phase 2’s first 2.2 million-tpy line in February 2015.

Alongside contract awards to E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. and Axens SA to license processing technologies for the complex, HPDC also previously let a contract to the CB&I-Chevron Corp. joint venture Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) to provide licensing of its proprietary Isodewaxing and Isofinishing technologies, as well as deliver engineering services and catalyst supply, for a grassroots 683,000-tpy Group II-III base oils plant to be built as part of the project, according to a December 2014 release from CLG (OGJ Online, Feb. 10, 2016).

HPDC has yet to confirm a definitive timeline for full commissioning of the integrated complex.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].