DuPont awarded a major refining contract in China
WILMINGTON, Del., Aug. 24, 2017 – DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) has been awarded the contract to supply the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with a second STRATCO® alkylation unit; this time for the Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Qilu). The Sinopec Qilu company is a large-scale refiner and producer of petrochemicals, fertilizers and chemical fiber in Zibo, Shandong Province. In order to comply with the China V standard of 10 ppm sulfur content for fuel, Sinopec commissioned DuPont for the license, engineering and equipment of a STRATCO® alkylation unit with 400 Mtpy (10.300 Mbpd) alkylate capacity.
The STRATCO® alkylation unit will enable Sinopec Qilu to generate low-sulfur, high-octane, low-RVP alkylate with zero olefins that meets the criteria of the China 5 standard. Startup is targeted for mid-2018.
“Due to extreme plot space limitations within the Sinopec Qilu refinery, DuPont has designed the STRATCO® alkylation unit with the innovative Model 74 Contactor™ reactors. This is the first application of the Model 74 Contactor™ reactors, which were developed to reduce the number of reactors in an alkylation unit. This not only reduces the amount of plot space required, but also results in an overall lower capital cost while offering the extremely high reliability and on-stream time that refiners have come to expect from the STRATCO® alkylation technology,” said Kevin Bockwinkel, global business manager, STRATCO® Alkylation Technology.
Fundamentally, the Model 74 Contactor™ reactor is the same as commercially operating Contactor™ reactors in service throughout the world. The Model 74 Contactor™ reactor includes the latest improvements and each has a volume of 68.1 m3 (18,000 gallons) while the standard size Contactor™ reactor (Model 63) has a volume of 43.5 m3 (11,500 gallons) per reactor. Both reactor models are commercially available from DuPont.
“Sinopec is driving gasoline and diesel production to new, lower-emission specifications at its refineries,” said Eli Ben-Shoshan, global business leader, DuPont Clean Technologies. “DuPont is pleased to be able to assist Sinopec with a custom-designed solution for its site to produce cleaner fuel.”
The Sinopec Tianjin Company (TPCC) had previously awarded a contract to DuPont for a STRATCO® alkylation unit at its oil refinery in the Tianjin Binhai New Area district in northern China. The Tianjin alkylation unit startup is scheduled for mid-2018.
Licensed and designed by DuPont, the STRATCO® alkylation technology is the established global leader in the industry with over 90 units licensed worldwide and more than 850 Mbpd (33.3 Mtpy) of installed capacity. For over 80 yr, the STRATCO® technology has helped refineries safely to produce cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, a low Rvp, low sulfur and zero olefins.
Comments