Prospects for China's Petrochemical
                     Technologies in the 21st Century
                  By Zhang Jian, Lin Baiping(China National
                      Petrochemical Information Center)
The oil refining capacity will reach 220 million t/a and  the  ethylene
   capacity    will reach 5 million t/a in China  by  the  end  of  the
century. The oil refining capacity will reach over 300 million t/a and
the ethylene capacity will reach 8 - 10  million  t/a  in  2010.   The
  petrochemical  industry  in  China  will  face  unprecedented  severe
challenges at the turn of the century. The  fundamental  way  out  for
survival and development in competition is the technical progress.
1. Technologies for integrated large-sized petrochemical units
Large-scale production is an important trend of development in  China's
petrochemical industry in the 21st century. The construction of  large
-sized units can have various advantages  such  as  saving  investment,
  increasing  productivity,   reducing  production  cost,     promoting
integration of oil refining with petrochemical production  and  making
effective comprehensive utilization of resources.
To suit the transformation of the economic growth modes and the need of
  the  market  competition,    China   Petrochemical   Corporation   is
implementing the plan to expand its petrochemical units. Oil  refining
units with a capacity of  10  million  t/a,   ethylene  units  with  a
capacity of over 600 000 t/a and  large  enterprises  integrating  oil
  refining  with  petrochemical  production  will   become   the   main
development orientation in the 21st century. We  must  therefore  take
existing technologies as the basis and develop new technologies needed
in large oil refining and petrochemical production equipment, as  well
as a  series  of  technologies  for  complete  plants,   comprehensive
utilization of products, deep-processing of  products  and  processes,
yield promotion of main products such  as  light  oils  and  ethylene,
mutual supply of raw materials  for  oil  refining  and  petrochemical
production, and readjustment of product structure.   Efforts  will  be
made to enable the petrochemical industry in China to attain the  goal
of "being large-sized and advanced and producing product  series  with
intensive production".
Before 2000, China  will  achieve  the  purpose  mainly  by  conducting
renovation and expansion to  existing  units.   Yanshan  Petrochemical
Corporation and Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. have accumulated
successful experience in this respect. Measures  are  being  taken  in
  China  to  adopt  new  technologies  to  eliminate  bottlenecks   and
accelerate the renovation of ethylene units and  associated  units  in
Daqing, Qilu and Yangzi and the construction of  10  million  t/a  oil
refining bases in Zhenhai, Maoming, Guangzhou and Qilu.
2. Technologies for processing of imported sulfur-containing crude  oil
and reduced crude
Due to the constraints of domestic oil resources, China will still have
to import great quantities of crude oil. The import amount will  reach
50 million tons in 2000, and 35 million tons  of  the  total  will  be
sulfur-containing crude oil.
Processing sulfur-containing crude oil needs  special  technologies  in
process, equipment, corrosion prevention, transportation  and  storage
  and  environmental  protection,   especially  key  technologies   for
processing crude oil with high sulfur content, corrosion prevention of
equipment and refining of oil products.   It  is  also  imperative  in
processing of crude oil residuum with high sulfur content  to  develop
technologies for sulfur,  nitrogen,   metal  and  asphalt  removal  by
hydrogenation.
The yield of light oils in China is around 60% today and will reach 75%
in 2000. Catalytic cracking is the chief method for the transformation
of reduced crude to light oils. A complete product series  has  to  be
developed in catalytic cracking to meet the requirements of  different
oil feedstocks, units and  product  compositions.   It  is  especially
important to develop catalytic cracking agents with  high  selectivity
to increase the output of light oils and residuum  catalytic  cracking
agents with little green coke  generation  to  mix  more  residuum  in
refining.  Special  attention  will  also  be  paid  to  reducing  the
production cost of catalytic cracking agents.
Improvements will  be  made  in  technologies  for  residuum  catalytic
cracking and residuum processing such as delayed  coking  and  solvent
deasphalting. Various combined methods for  residuum  processing  will
also be optimized to increase the yield of light oils.
Combined methods for reduced crude processing in  conformity  with  the
conditions in China include visbreaking, catalytic cracking,   delayed
coking, atmospheric  reduce  crude  hydrodesulfurization  and  reduced
crude catalytic cracking.