Honeywell Technology and Controls Selected for Largest Petrochemicals Project in China
Honeywell announced that Zhejiang Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (ZPC) will use a range of process technology from Honeywell UOP, the world’s leading licensor of refining and petrochemical process technology, for a new integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province.
Honeywell UOP will supply a wide range of technologies in the form of license, design, key equipment, and state-of-the-art catalysts and adsorbents, while Honeywell Process Solutions will provide the process controls and automation systems.
The complex will be located in one of seven new large industrial sites that are part of China’s current national economic development plan. When completed, it will be the largest crude-to-chemicals complex in China and one of the largest in the world. The complex will produce petrochemicals, including aromatics that are used to make plastic resins, films and fibers that are the basis for millions of products.
“This is the first phase of a completely new site that will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce 5 million tons per year of aromatics when completed,” said Mike Millard, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment at Honeywell UOP. “It will help China meet its goal of self-sufficiency in paraxylene and serve as a major new source of propylene, jet fuel and other products.”
“The refining and petrochemical process units at this site will be controlled by the Experion Distributed Control System, which is designed and configured especially for Honeywell UOP processes,” said Chen Yan, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Process Solutions – Greater China. “This integrates all process control and safety systems and automation software under a single architecture, providing ZPC with pre-engineered solutions, faster project execution and an easy-to-use operator interface.”
The project includes a two-train LD Parex aromatics complex — including the UOP Sulfolane, Isomar and Tatoray™ processes — for the production of 4 million metric tons per year of paraxylene, a primary ingredient in plastics.
The new plant also will include an RFCC complex, using Honeywell UOP’s RCD Unionfining and RFCC™ processes to upgrade 5 million metric tons per year of residual oil into fuels.
An Oleflex propane dehydrogenation unit will produce 600,000 metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene – another basic component in the production of plastics, in addition to synthetic rubber and gasoline additives.
The project also will include a Honeywell UOP Unicracking hydrocracker to convert vacuum gas oil into petrochemical feedstocks, two CCR Platforming units to produce aromatics and blend stocks for making high-octane fuels, and a Unionfining naphtha hydrotreating unit to remove sulfur.
Honeywell UOP is the world’s leading licensor of process technology for the production of aromatics. As of last year, UOP licensed more than 100 complexes and more than 700 individual process units for the production of aromatics, including more than 300 CCR Platforming process units and 500 Unionfining units, 158 Sulfolane units, 80 Isomar units, 58 Tatoray units, 100 Parex units and 50 Oleflex units worldwide.
Honeywell Process Solutions technologies and automation help refine 40 million barrels of oil a day at about half of the world’s refineries. These technologies control and manage more than 50,000 oil and gas storage tanks, about 40 percent of the world’s LNG carrier fleet, and 94,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines, enough to circle the world almost four times.