Diversification of Raw Materials for Propylene Production in China
Year:2015 ISSUE:5
COLUMN:ORGANICS
Click:252 DateTime:Mar.10,2015
Diversification of Raw Materials for Propylene Production in China
By Li Tie, Tianjin Petrochemical Transportation & Sales Center
China’s propylene industry is developing rapidly, making China a big propylene producer and consumer. The capacity to make propylene here was 20.82 million t/a in 2013, the output was 19 million tons and the apparent consumption was 21.6 million tons. With the accelerated construction of large units and the constant increase of production scale, China’s self-sufficiency gradually improved. It is expected that the capacity of propylene in China will reach around 26 million t/a in 2015, and raw materials for propylene production will develop toward light and diversified varieties.
Supply and demand
The capacity of propylene in China was up from 8.16 million t/a in 2007 to 20.82 million t/a in 2013, an increase of 1.5 fold. The average scale of propylene cracking units also increased to 269 kt/a. Table 1 and Table 2 show the distribution of propylene capacity in China in 2013.
The coal-to-olefin sector in China has developed considerably in recent years and brought about a growth of propylene production. Methanol-to-olefin projects completed and put on stream in 2013 include a 200 kt/a project of Sinopec Zhongyuan Ethylene Co., Ltd. and a 600 kt/a project of Ningbo Heyuan Chemical Co., Ltd. Quite a few coal-to-olefin units have also started construction. Examples include a Jingbian oil/gas/coal/salt comprehensive utilization project (the first-phase coal-to-olefin capacity being 600 kt/a) of Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., Ltd. and a 680kt/a coal-to-olefin project of Shaanxi Pucheng Clean Energy Chemical Co., Ltd.
In addition, China has made a clear plan for constructing around 10 propane dehydrogenation (PDH) units with a total capacity of 5.32 million t/a. The supply/demand gap of propylene in China is 8-10 million tons. Even if the planned PDH capacity totally starts production, this gap cannot be bridged. The output increase of propylene produced through naphtha cracking will be very limited. The supply of propylene in China, therefore, will be unable to meet the demand for a considerable period of time.
Table 1 Capacity of propylene cracking and coal-based propylene in China (kt/a)
Producer Capacity
Dushanzi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 670
Daqing Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. 600
Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. 500
Shaoxing Fuling Industrial Group Co., Ltd. 500
New Coal-to-Olefin Project of Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. 500
Maoming Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 470
Fujian Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. 470
Inner Mongolia Datang International Duolun Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. 460
Sichuan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 450
Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 450
Formosa Plastics Ningbo Co., Ltd. 450
Yanshan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 450
Yangzi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 420
Wuhan Large Ethylene Co., Ltd. 400
Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 400
Fushun Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 390
Lanzhou Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 360
Dalian First Organic Chemical Co., Ltd. 320
Panjin Ethylene Co., Ltd. 300
Yanan Refinery 300
Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. 300
Ningbo Heyuan Chemical Co., Ltd. 300
Others 4 400
Total 13 860
Table 2 Capacity of propylene in small refineries of China (kt/a)
Region Refinery Capacity ? ?Remark
Shandong? Kenli Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 28 products all for outside sales
Dongying Boyuan Chemical Co., Ltd. 54 products all for outside sales
Qingdao Anbang Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. 57 products all for outside sales
BlueStar Jinan Petroleum Co., Ltd. 57
Haike Chemical Group Co., Ltd. 86 30 kt/a isopropanol unit
Guangrao Zhenghe Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100 60 kt/a acrylic acid unit, 60 kt/a acrylic ester unit, small amounts for outside sales
Huifeng Petrochemical Group Co., Ltd. 220 products all for outside sales
Jincheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100 products all for outside sales
Jingbo Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100 20 kt/a PP unit
Fuhai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 114 products all for outside sales
Heavy Oil Plant of Shengli Oilfield Co., Ltd. 114 products all for outside sales
Dongming Wusheng Chemical Co., Ltd. 114
Shida Shenghua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. 157 40 kt/a propylene oxide unit
Weifang Hongrun Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 70 products all for outside sales
Rizhao Chenxi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 80 80 kt/a PP unit, small amounts for outside sales
Shandong Huaxing Petrochemical Group Co., Ltd. 80 50 kt/a PP unit
Changyi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 300 products all for outside sales
Hengyuan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 250 downstream PP unit
Heze Deyuan Chemical Co., Ltd. 150 production already suspended
Dongfang Hualong Group Co., Ltd. 250 products all for outside sales
Dongying Shengchi Chemical Group Co., Ltd. 300 products all for outside sales
Shouguang Lianmeng Chemical Group Co., Ltd. 200 products all for outside sales
Qingdao Huanhai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 150 products all for outside sales
Shandong Wanda Chemical Co., Ltd. 100
Shandong Yongxin Chemical Co., Ltd. 30
Shandong Wantong Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 30 products all for outside sales
Dongfang Hongye Chemical Co., Ltd. 50 40 kt/a PP unit
Dongming Petrochemical Group Co., Ltd. 100 50 kt/a PP unit
Yuhuang Shengshi Chemical Co., Ltd. 250 downstream PP unit
Binzhou Dayou New Energy Development Co., Ltd. 100 products all for outside sales
Shengshi Chemical Co., Ltd. 50
Lijin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 280
Northwest China Hohhot Refinery 57
Xianyang Auxiliaries Plant 100 products all for outside sales
Ninglu Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 70
Xian Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 120
East China Hangzhou Refinery 30 pipeline transmission
Jiangsu Xinhai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100 products all for outside sales
Jinling Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 200 pipeline transmission
Ningbo Keyuan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100
Jiangsu Fenglin Industrial Co., Ltd. 60 production already suspended
South China Huizhou Refinery 93
Northeast China Jinxi Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. 100 120 kt/a propylene oxide unit, around 100 tons for outside sales
BlueStar Harbin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 109
BlueStar Daqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 100
Liaoning Tongyi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 200 products mostly for self-consumption
North China Hebei Xinji Chemical Co., Ltd. 100
BlueStar Tianjin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 80
Tianjin Dagang Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 80
Shijiazhuang Refinery 100
Southwest China Sichuan Shengma Chemical Co., Ltd. 150 products all supplied to the downstream PP unit
Yueyang Xingchang Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 300 products all supplied to the downstream PP unit
In the three major consumption sectors of propylene today, the consumption proportion is 68% for making PP, 8% for making propylene oxide and 7% for making acrylonitrile. This distribution will see no great changes in the next five years. It is expected that the average annual growth of the propylene demand up to 2016 will be 4.4%, faster than the capacity growth. The shortage will therefore go on.
The apparent consumption of propylene in China was up from 9.5 million tons in 2007 to 21.6 million tons in 2013, an increase of 1.29 fold. The output of propylene in China was 19.02 million tons in 2013, the import volume was 2.6405 million tons and self-sufficiency was 87.8%. Table 3 shows the production/sales balance of propylene in China.
Construction of integrated units
The propylene industry in China will sustain development toward large production scale. With the completion of a group of large petrochemical projects such as Daqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Fushun Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Sichuan Pengzhou Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Wuhan Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Huizhou Ethylene Second Phase, Hainan Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. and Sinopec Kuwait Refining & Chemical Integrated Project in Zhenjiang, the total capacity of propylene in China is expected to reach 24-26 million t/a in 2015. The average scale of ethylene/propylene co-production units using the naphtha route will reach more than 350 kt/a and the rate for the diversification of olefin raw materials will be over 20%. New ethylene capacity will be 2.30 million t/a in Sinopec, 1.10 million t/a in PetroChina and 1.50 million t/a in other enterprises. MTO/MTP capacity will also be constructed. The new capacity to make olefins from coal-based methanol will be 4.50 million t/a, and its proportion in the total ethylene capacity will jump from less than 8% today to 20% in 2015. China’s output of propylene will also jump from 19.02 million tons in 2013 to 28 million tons in 2015. Table 4 shows the propylene projects being constructed or planned for construction during 2011-2015.
Table 3 Supply/demand of propylene in China, 2008-2013 (kt, %)
Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Capacity 8 300 10 570 17 220 17 220 17 770 20 820
Output 8 330 8 910 14 500 16 760 15 930 19 030
Import volume 920 1 550 1 520 1 760 2 150 2 640
Apparent consumption 9 250 10 460 15 760 18 440 18 080 21 670
Self-sufficiency 90 85 92 91 88 88
Table 4 Propylene projects being constructed or planned for construction
in China, 2011-2015 (kt/a)
Company Capacity Time for starting production
Jiutai Energy Group Co., Ltd. (Coal Chemical) 300 2014
Shaanxi Yanchang China Coal Yulin Energy & Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. 300 February 2014
Erdos Coal Chemical Project 600 2014-2015
Jining Yanzhou Coal Mining Co., Ltd. 300 2014
Gansu Huating Coal Group Co., Ltd. 200 2014
Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd. 160 2014
Shaanxi Pucheng Clean Energy Co., Ltd. (Coal Chemical) 400 2014
Yannan Energy & Chemical Co., Ltd. 300 2014
Shanxi Coking Group Co., Ltd. 300 2014
MTO Unit of Wison Nanjing Clean Energy Co., Ltd. 160 2014
Zhongyuan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (Coal-to-Olefin) 200 2014
Shandong Shengda Chemical Co., Ltd. (Zaozhuang Tengzhou) 200 first half of 2014
Yanan Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. (Fuxian Coal Chemical) 250 2016
Henan Hebi Coal Chemical Project 400 to be fixed
ZhongAn Coal Chemical Project 300 to be fixed
Datong Coal Mine Group Co., Ltd. 300 to be fixed
Total >4 070
Diversification of raw materials
The development of the propylene industry requires a huge volume of crude oil. The import of crude oil by China continued to increase in 2013, the import volume reached 281.95 million tons, an increase of 4.03% over the previous year, and the dependence on imports was 57.39%. According to the development goal of achieving a propylene capacity of 24 million t/a in 2015, 81 million tons of chemical light oil will be needed, based on steam cracking. To ease the shortage of olefin raw materials, various channels should be used to guarantee the supply of olefin resources. Rich coal resources and coal-to-olefin technologies developed domestically should be taken as backing to make moderate development of the coal-to-olefin production. The advantage of refining/chemical integration should be fully employed to make maximum use of byproducts from refineries to produce olefins. At the same time, propane dehydrogenation technology should be improved to increase the yield of propylene in PDH units.
Upgrading of competitiveness
Middle Eastern countries are developing the olefin industry vigorously on the strength of rich and low-price raw materials. The impact on the olefin industry in China is very evident. The large-scale development of shale gas in the United States has brought about abundant low-price raw materials. With the advantage in low-price raw materials and the advantage in technology, the United States will also influence the global market mode of olefins and downstream derivatives.
The propylene industry in China will feature the coexistence of traditional byproduct processes with steam cracking and catalytic cracking such as lead, propane dehydrogenation process, coal chemical process and imported propylene and derivatives.
Traditional processes for the propylene production are mainly two. One is the process of producing propylene as byproduct in steam cracking units. The other is the process of producing propylene as byproduct in catalytic cracking units. Both processes are constrained by the production of the primary products. The proportion of the capacity to produce propylene through these two processes in the world has dropped from 97% in 2001 to around 88% today. Ethylene cracking units are still the major source of propylene. When naphtha is used as raw material, the propylene output is 50-65% of the ethylene output.
It is estimated that the consumption growth of propylene will be around 0.2% higher than ethylene during 2013-2016 and the proportion produced by the ethylene cracking process will shrink constantly. As a result, the output growth of propylene produced in ethylene cracking units will be very limited. Propylene produced in catalytic cracking units is usually used as raw material for small PP units, and the yield of propylene is in a range of 4-6%. Due to setbacks to production expansion in the two major traditional methods, developing processes that have a high yield of propylene is a way to ease the supply shortage.
The propane dehydrogenation process has many advantages such as well developed technology, good product quality, high conversion rate and low byproduct volume. The main defect is that propane produced in China cannot yet meet the processing requirements, so raw materials need to be imported. The advantage of the process for the production of propylene from coal-based methanol is that rich and low-price coal resources can be used. Nevertheless, it has defects such as high byproduct amount, unduly high water consumption, poor product quality and inconvenient transportation.
The coal-to-olefin sector in China has developed rapidly in recent years. The world’s first MTO unit was successfully wet commissioned in Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemical Industry Park in 2010. The MTP unit in Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. started production in the same year. The MTP unit of Datang International Duolun Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. and the 600 kt/a MTO commercial unit of Zhongyuan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. were completed and put on stream in 2011.
