MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced Oriental Energy Company Ltd. will use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to meet growing demand for the production of polymer-grade propylene, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The Oleflex unit is scheduled to start up in Maoming, Guangdong in 2022.
UOP will provide services, equipment, catalysts and adsorbents for the Maoming plant. The project marks Oriental Energy’s fourth C3 Oleflex unit, and the 44th award for C3 Oleflex technology in China, where demand continues to rise for propylene, the primary component in many plastic resins, films and fibers.
Since 2011, 68 of the last 92 dehydrogenation projects globally have been based on UOP technology, including many in China. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology currently stands at approximately 7.9 million metric tons per year.
“Longtime customers such as Oriental Energy continue to invest in UOP’s Oleflex technology because of its strong record for operational reliability and cost efficiency compared to other dehydrogenation technologies,” said Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager of UOP’s Process Technologies business. “We continue to see significant growth in China with the immense demand for propylene.”
UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene and is designed to have a lower cash cost of production and higher return on investment compared to competing dehydrogenation technologies. The Oleflex technology’s low-energy consumption, low-emissions and fully recyclable, platinum-alumina-based catalyst system also helps minimize impact on the environment. The independent reactor and regeneration design helps maximize operating flexibility and onstream reliability.
Nanjing-based Oriental Energy Company, Ltd. is one of the first companies in China to adopt on-purpose propylene technology. It previously has licensed three C3 Oleflex units, each at 660,000 metric tons a year, two of which are in operation with a third going into production this year. In addition to these three, two more units are planned.
As MRC reported earlier, China's Oriental Energy was to start up its new PDH plant in Ningbo in October 2020, after it was delayed from late June. The new PDH plant has the capacity to produce 660,000 mt/year of propylene.
Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC