Sinochem starts ethylene plant at Quanzhou integrated refining complex

Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinochem Group Co. Ltd., has commissioned its previously announced ethylene expansion project as part of the initial stage of the operator’s second-phase development of its 12-million tonnes/year (tpy) integrated refining complex entered into service in June 2014 at Quanhui Petrochemical Industrial Park, Hui’an County, in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, on the southeast coast of mainland China (OGJ Online, Mar. 27, 2019; July 10, 2014).

Equipped with KBR’s proprietary Selective Cracking Optimum Recovery (SCORE) technology and SCORE SC-1 furnaces, the new 1-million tpy ethylene plant is now operating, KBR said on Dec. 7.

Commissioning of the new ethylene complex—which actually began in September 2020 with startup of the plant’s 400,000-tpy high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit, followed by a 130,000-tpy butadiene extraction unit, as well as six other units—is part of the first phase of Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical’s broader second-phase expansion program at Quanzhou further increase crude processing capacity, chemical integration, and sophistication of operations at the complex, according to the operator’s website.

Identified broadly as its refining and chemical integration optimization project (RCIOP), Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical said the entire 32.5-billion yuan program—a key project in China’s 13th 5-Year-Plan period—includes a nearly 3.5-billion tranche that seeks to expand crude oil processing capacity of the complex by 3 million tpy to 15 million tpy, as well as add the following unit capacities:

• Continuous reforming (including pressure swing adsorption), 2.6 million tpy.
• Aromatics extraction, 1.4 million tpy.
• Hydrocracking, 2.2 million tpy.
• Light hydrocarbon recovery, 2.2 million tpy.
• Dry gas desulfurization, 26,300 tpy.
• LPG desulfurization-mercaptans removal; 360,000 tpy.

According to project documents filed with Fujian Province midyear 2020, Sinopec Engineering Construction Co. Ltd. previously delivered a feasibility study for the entirely of the RCIOP and is delivering engineering and basic design for the bulk of the new units to be added.

The operator has yet to disclose a more specific timeline for the fully proposed RCIOP.