SINOPEC Hainan Petrochemical

Using reformate C6+ as the feed to produce paraxylene (PX for short), is common for the production of synthetic fibre, engineering plastics, and other materials. On account of this project, the PX production in China reached over 23 million tons in 2018.

Before 2013, only UOP in the United States and AXENS in France owned this technology. After years of research, SINOPEC has developed efficient and eco-friendly PX suite technology with independent intellectual property and completed the first successful application in this project.

This has made SINOPEC the third patent company in the world with a complete set of PX production technologies.

The material consumption and energy consumption per unit product in this project are 5% and 28% lower respectively, the cost per ton of product is 8% lower and the CO2 emissions are 27% lower compared with other methods of production.

This efficiency was recognized by four academics of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, including Tan Tianwei, for reaching the world’s leading level, with strong integrity, high reliability and security, advanced performance indicators, clean production, stable operation, and remarkable economic and social benefits.

The technology won the top science award of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award in 2015. In 2015, experts from KBR evaluated this project and praised that SINOPEC suite of technologies to produce Para-xylene from refinery feed stock as comparable to other licensors.

Clean production was emphasised throughout the project and a number of environmental protection measures were adopted. The solid waste emissions were decreased by 98%, reducing the clay consumption by 50,000 tons per year.

The VOC emissions were greatly cut down too, and the CO2 emissions were reduced by 129,000 tons per year, equivalent to the filtration capability of 1.1 million trees. The environmental protection monitoring indicators were superior to those stipulated in national standards, achieving no undesirable odour in the air, no leakage on the ground and no permeation under the ground.

With 600,000 tons of PX products from this project per year, the polyester fibre produced from the PX products is equivalent to the cotton produced from the arable land of Hainan Province (8.75 million acres).