Zhejiang Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (ZPC) has let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to provide proprietary process technology and equipment for hydrogen purification and recovery to be installed as part of the second phase of its 800,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China (OGJ Online, Nov. 6, 2018).
As part of the contract, Honeywell UOP will deliver four of its proprietary Polybed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units to supply high-purity hydrogen for the complex’s second-phase development, the service provider said.
UOP’s scope of delivery will include the four Polybed PSA systems—which are skid-mounted, modular units complete with hardware, adsorbents, control systems, and embedded process technology, as well as proprietary UOP adsorbents to remove impurities at high pressure from hydrogen-containing process streams, allowing hydrogen to be recovered and upgraded to more than 99.9% purity to meet refining needs.
Alongside recovering and purifying hydrogen from steam reformers and refinery offgases, ZPC also can use the Polybed PSA systems to produce hydrogen from other sources such as ethylene offgas, methanol offgas, and partial-oxidation synthesis gas.
This latest contract follows ZPC’s previous contract awards to Honeywell UOP for process technology licensing, engineering design, and catalysts on multiple units for the first two phases of the complex, which is one of several new large industrial sites that are part of China’s current national economic development plan (OGJ Online, Jan. 17, 2019; May 11, 2017).
As the largest integrated refining and petrochemicals project in the world, ZPC’s Zhoushan manufacturing site includes two complexes, together containing two UOP vacuum gas oil Unicracking units with a combined capacity of 8 million tonnes/year, as well as two diesel Unicracking units with a combined capacity of 7 million tpy, Honeywell UOP said.
The ZPC complexes also feature the following UOP proprietary units and technologies:
- One RCD Unionfining unit and one RFCC unit, each with a capacity of 5 million tpy.
- Four CCR Platforming units with a total capacity of 15.2 million tpy.
- One Butamer unit with a 400,000-tpy fresh feed rate.
- Four LD Parex trains with a total capacity of 8.8 million tpy.
- One C3 Oleflex unit with a capacity of 510,000 tpy.
With more than 50% of its crude capacity converted to petrochemicals, the complex, once completed, will be the largest crude-to-chemicals complex in China and one of the largest in the world, manufacturing petrochemicals to make plastic resins, films, and fibers, as well as fuels, moving China closer to self-sufficiency in paraxylene production and as a major new source of propylene and other products.
A timeframe for commissioning of the project’s second phase, however, has yet to be disclosed.
ZPC—a joint venture of China-based Rongsheng Holding Group Co. Ltd., Juhua Group Corp., Tongkun Group Co. Ltd., and Zhoushan Marine Comprehensive Development Investment Co. Ltd.—previously said it would invest about 160 billion yuan to complete both phases of the project.
In late 2018, Saudi Aramco also signed a memorandum of understanding with ZPC to acquire ownership interest in the complex (OGJ Online, Oct. 26, 2018).
