Oriental Energy Company Ltd. utilizing Honeywell UOP technology for propylene production
China—Ningbo Fortune Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Zhangjiagang Yangzi River Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (YRPC), both subsidiaries of Oriental Energy Co. Ltd., are utilizing Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex™ process technology to each produce 600 Mtpy (thousands of tonnes per year) of on-purpose propylene from propane.
YRPC, located in Zhangjiagang in China's Jiangsu Province, and Ningbo Fortune, in Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province, are the fourth and fifth Chinese companies to commercialize Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex process to make propylene for plastics, packaging and synthetic fibers. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology now stands at approximately 6.8 MMtpy.
"The demand for domestically produced on-purpose propylene continues to be very strong in China, due to the increasing demand for polypropylene and other downstream chemical and plastic products," said John Gugel, Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell UOP's Process Technology and Equipment business.
Until recently, 70% of the world's propylene was produced as a byproduct of making ethylene from petroleum. However, the increased use of ethane as a source of ethylene produces almost no propylene. The resulting propylene supply gap has necessitated the production of on-purpose propylene from propane dehydrogenation technologies such as the Oleflex process.
Demand for propylene in China, which consumes more than 15% of the world's propylene, is growing more than 4%/yr, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
In addition to licensing technology from Honeywell UOP, YRPC and Ningbo Fortune are using catalysts and adsorbents for their Oleflex units that are produced at Honeywell's manufacturing site in Zhangjiagang City. Honeywell UOP also provided the engineering design, equipment, staff training and technical service for both projects.
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