A view of China’s first full-chain green and low-carbon ethylene project in Korla city, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]
China’s first full-chain green and low-carbon ethylene project was put into operation on Thursday, lifting annual ethylene capacity at the Dushanzi Petrochemical complex to more than 3 million metric tons and making it the only ethylene production base of that scale in the country’s central and western regions.
Dushanzi Petrochemical is a subsidiary of State-owned China National Petroleum Corp, or CNPC.
The expansion, which will boost capacity by 1.2 million tons per year, comes as China seeks to strengthen domestic production of higher-value petrochemical materials and develop manufacturing further inland using the region’s abundant oil and gas resources.
Located in Shangku Petrochemical Industrial Park in Korla, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the project integrates renewable electricity, carbon capture and petrochemical production technologies to lower emissions while producing key industrial feedstocks, according to CNPC.
The company said the project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 1.37 million tons a year, equivalent to planting about 365,334 hectares of forest. The facility draws 1 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power annually through a direct connection with CNPC’s Tarim Oilfield photovoltaic project. It also features China’s first domestically developed electric-drive system for the three core ethylene compressors, replacing conventional steam-driven equipment to lower emissions.
CNPC said the project also employs China’s first proprietary technology capable of capturing carbon dioxide from ultra-low-concentration ethylene cracking furnace flue gas. Under this process, captured carbon dioxide and by-product hydrogen are fully recycled through an integrated system combining green electricity, carbon capture, blue hydrogen, blue ammonia and green fertilizer production.
Ethylene, the basic building block for plastics, synthetic rubber and fibers, is widely regarded as an indicator of the overall level of a country’s petrochemical industry. The new facility will produce ethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and other petrochemical products used in packaging, automobiles, consumer goods and industrial applications.
The project also underscores China’s efforts to localize advanced petrochemical technologies.
“The project has sought to overcome technological bottlenecks,” said Tong Yi, a design manager for the project, in an interview with local media.
CNPC said 10 of the project’s 11 major production units use domestic technologies, including nine developed by the company.
The ethylene unit is largely localized, while downstream units, including pygas hydrogenation and butadiene rubber production, have achieved 100 percent localization. The project also marks China’s first domestically manufactured large-scale extrusion pelletizer system, according to the company.
The complex in Korla was completed in 22 months, setting a new domestic record for the construction of a refinery and petrochemical project of comparable scale. The company attributed the pace to modular construction, factory prefabrication and digital project management.
It adopted a construction model covering standardized design, centralized procurement, factory prefabrication, modular construction, intelligent management and digital delivery.
The new facility uses feedstock supplied by supporting natural gas processing and crude stabilization projects at CNPC’s Tarim Oilfield, further integrating upstream oil and gas production with downstream petrochemical manufacturing.
Zheng Xin in Beijing and Mao Weihua in Urumqi contributed to this story.
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