Zhenhai Inaugurates Production of PP Unit   

Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. announced that the 300 000 t/a polypropylene (PP) unit, the first unit conducting wet commissioning in its 1 million ethylene project, produced qualified PP on February 10th, 2010.
  Construction on the PP unit was started on December 30th, 2007. This unit uses Sinopec owned loop PP polymerization complete technology and Sinopec-made catalyst to produce 60 varieties of PP particle resin, including homopolymer, random polymer and high-impact polymer. Most of key facilities installed in this unit are made in China.   
   The construction on the whole 1.0 million t/a ethylene project was announced completed on December 28th, 2009 (CCR2010 No.1). The company said the other ten major units of this project will enter trial production stage one after another.
   On February 8th, the units of 285 000 t/a propylene oxide and 620 000 t/a styrene monomer, another major unit of the project, have been swept with high pressure vapor, preparing to conduct wet commissioning now. This unit has reportedly had a construction cost of RMB4.44 billion, jointly invested by Sinopec Corp. and LyondellBasell. On February 25th LyondellBasell announced a project to cease the production of 255 000 t/a PP at Terni, Italy.