Honeywell unit to provide production technology on China petrochemical project
Honeywell’s UOP has been selected by Jiangsu Haili Chemical Industry Co. to provide technologies for the production of propylene, cumene and phenol at its facility in Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province, China.
The facility will use UOP C3 Oleflex process technology to convert propane to propylene, a substance used in the production of materials such as films and packaging, the company said.
Additionally, the UOP Q-Max and UOP Phenol process technologies will be integrated to convert cumene to phenol, a building block for materials such as plastic and nylon.
The new units, expected to start up in 2014, will produce 510,000 tpy of propylene, 473,000 tpy of cumene and 360,000 tpy of phenol. UOP will provide engineering design, technology licensing, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical service for the project.
"The demand for propylene and phenol is growing around the world. In China particularly, many petrochemical producers are investing in new capacity to be able to supply both their domestic and foreign customers," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president for process technology and equipment at Honeywell's UOP.
The Oleflex process uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene. Compared with competing PDH processes, Oleflex technology provides the lowest cash cost of production and the highest return on investment, enabled by low operating and capital costs, high propylene yield and reliability, and maximum operating flexibility.
Since the technology was commercialized in 1990, UOP has commissioned nine C3 Oleflex units for on-purpose propylene production with the 10th unit scheduled to start-up in 2012 in Russia.
Earlier this year, UOP announced similar projects with Zhejiang Julong Petrochemical Co. Ltd., also located in China and Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. (Takreer), located in Abu Dhabi.
The UOP Q-Max process produces high-quality cumene through the alkylation of benzene with propylene. The cumene produced is then processed using the UOP Phenol process to produce high-quality phenol with low feedstock and utility requirements.
The Q-Max process is currently used to produce more than 3.5 million metric tons of cumene each year, and the phenol process is currently used in more than 16 units worldwide with a total installed capacity of more than 2 million tpy.
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