On March 25, the first vehicle of the PO/SM unit of Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical's 1 million tons/year ethylene project was successfully installed and shipped from the factory. The smooth commissioning of Quanzhou Petrochemical’s PO/SM plant has made up for the gap in propylene oxide integrated plant products in Fujian Province. In the face of huge market demand, the product will be supplied to 12 mainstream PO customers such as Wanhua and Jiahua. Mainstream consumer markets in Fujian Province, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
At present, my country’s oil refining capacity is generally surplus, and the chemical capacity still has regional supply and demand mismatches. Refineries in East China and South China have the ability to promote refining and chemical integration and increase the output of chemical raw materials to meet regional demand. This unique advantage will also accelerate the continuous development of my country's chemical industry in the direction of capacity agglomeration and regional rebalancing.
PO/SM technology is favored
PO/SM process technology is mainly mastered by Lyondell Basell, Respol, Shell and other companies. Chinese companies such as Changzhou Ruihua Chemical Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. and Wanhua Chemical are also committed to the development and application of this technology.
The PO/SM technology independently developed by Wanhua Chemical passed the Achievement Appraisal of the Petrochemical Federation in January 2019. This technology has the comprehensive advantages of fewer wastes, high added value of co-products, low energy consumption, and good economy. However, the technology has long been monopolized by foreign companies. In order to promote the technological upgrading of the domestic propylene oxide industry, Wanhua Chemical established a team to start independent research and development of propylene oxide manufacturing technology through the co-oxidation of ethylbenzene, and cooperated with Zhejiang University to carry out small-scale process technology research. At the same time, Wanhua Chemical has independently designed and built an industrial test device with an annual output of 500 tons of propylene oxide and 1,100 tons of styrene, which has also been commissioned and tested successfully, and has achieved stable operation for more than 90 days. Wanhua Chemical has invested 3.25 billion yuan to implement the transformation of this technological achievement in Yantai and build a world-class industrial plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons of propylene oxide and 650,000 tons of styrene. The device is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2021.
Ruihua Chemical was established in 2007 and is committed to the research and development and promotion of styrene localization process technology. It has transferred PO/SM technology to many companies, including CITIC Guoan Chemical, Zhejiang Petrochemical Phase II, Jingbo Hydrocarbon Biochemical Technology, etc. It is reported that the 80,200,000 ton/year PO/SM project of CITIC Guoan Chemical has been basically completed. According to Xu Zhigang, Chairman of Changzhou Ruihua Chemical Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., each ton of propylene oxide produced by the PO/SM process will co-produce 2.2 to 2.5 tons of styrene. This is an advantage of this process. Especially in refining and chemical integration projects, the PO/SM process has more advantages.
The surge in production capacity will lead to a crisis of excess
Propylene oxide industry
Due to the high unit price of propylene oxide and the good development momentum of downstream industries, coupled with breakthroughs in the development of green environmental protection technology, new projects have continuously surfaced in recent years. According to data, as of the end of 2020, the domestic production capacity of propylene oxide was 3.282 million tons/year, and Shandong Xinyue, Jilin Shenhua, and CNOOC and Shell ranked the top three in China, with 350,000 tons/year, 300,000 tons/year and 29 10,000 tons/year. With the weakening of the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, a number of propylene oxide projects will be put into operation in 2021, as shown in Table 1.
The rapid expansion of production capacity will have an impact on the propylene oxide market. It can be seen from the data in Table 1 that in 2021, five sets of devices will adopt the PO/SM production process, involving a PO production capacity of 1.07 million tons/year.
Styrene industry
From 2021 to 2022, styrene across the country will enter a period of explosive growth in production capacity. From the perspective of the distribution of new installations, my country's styrene production capacity is distributed to the north. In 2020, the domestic styrene production capacity will be 2.65 million tons, an increase of 52%. In 2021, China's new styrene capacity is expected to reach 5.62 million tons/year.
Among them, Shandong plans to put 1.49 million tons/year of styrene equipment into production. By then, only Shandong Province’s styrene production capacity will increase to 2.96 million tons/year. While Shandong’s production capacity has increased significantly, Shandong’s surrounding markets have also seen a surge in production capacity. Among them, Tianjin Bohua’s 450,000-ton/year plant and Luoyang Petrochemical’s 120,000-ton/year plant are scheduled to be put into operation in the third quarter; Eastern China will have 1.41 million tons of new plants put into operation. The Shandong market not only has an intra-regional supply competition pattern, but also faces regional and The competitive landscape of southward resource sales. The domestic styrene market environment is gradually deteriorating.
Source: Chemical Network