30 000 T/A Butanone Project Put on Stream

Recently the 30 000 t/a butanone (methyl ethyl ketone) project completed by Hebei Zhongjie Petrochemical Group Company Ltd. was put on stream in Cangzhou Coastal-port Chemical Industry Zone, Hebei province with a total investment of RMB280 million. It is the current largest butanone project in China.    The project adopts the advanced secondary butyl alcohol hydration process, and cut the production cost of butanone by RMB1 000 per ton by means of using the byproducts and some auxiliary facilities in MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) production.     It is reported that the domestic total capacity of butanone is around 160 000 t/a now. China imported 143 thousand tons of butanone in 2004.