Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co. Ltd. (HPDC) has let a contract to a division of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. to provide process technologies for an alkylation unit to be built at HPDC’s grassroots crude-to-paraxylene integrated refining and petrochemical project in Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park (HPIP) on Changxing Island in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China.
As part of the contract, DuPont Clean Technologies will supply alkylation and spent acid regeneration (SAR) technologies for the refinery, including licensing and engineering design packages for the proprietary STRATCO alkylation and MECS SAR units, DuPont said.
The STRATCO alkylation unit and associated technology will enable the refinery to produce high-quality alkylate for gasoline blending from a feedstock of 100% isobutylene, the service provider said.
The alkylation unit’s STRATCO contactor reactor additionally will be equipped with DuPont’s patented XP2 technology to maximize effectiveness and efficiency in the unit’s tube bundle-heat transfer area to further improve quality of alkylate production.
DuPont, which disclosed neither a value of the contract nor proposed unit capacities, said installation of the new units is planned for 2018, with start-up scheduled for 2019.
HPDC previously let a contract to Axens SA, Rueil-Malmaison, France, to provide a suite of processing units and technologies for a new integrated refining complex (OGJ Online, Feb. 10, 2016), which is to include a final-conversion refinery designed to process 400,000 b/sd of crude oil into mostly naphtha, as well as an aromatics plant that will maximize output of high-purity paraxylene to be used as feedstock for HPDC’s existing purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plants at HPIP.
In addition to high-purity paraxylene, the new crude-to-paraxylene complex also will produce gasoline and diesel fuels that meet China 5-quality specifications, as well as jet fuel, base lube oils, and LPG.
HPDC, which broke ground on the crude-to-paraxylene refining complex in late 2015, plans to invest a total of 74 billion yuan to complete the integration project, which is the largest refinery project in China ever to be approved, HPDC said.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].