Construction on 800,000-Ton Ethylene Project Begins in Wuhan

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A ceremony was held in mid-December to commemorate the start of construction for Wuhan Petrochemical Company's 800,000-ton-per-annum (TPA) ethylene unit. Wuhan Petrochemical is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) (Beijing). The project is the first large ethylene project in central China and is one of Sinopec's key projects during the 11th five-year plan (2006-10).

Located in Wuhan Chemical New Town in Wuhan's Hongshan District, the ethylene project takes up an area of 3.4 square kilometers. Construction is expected to last five years with production set to begin in 2011.

The project will include an 800,000-TPA ethylene-cracking unit, a 140,000-TPA butadiene unit, a 550,000-TPA gasoline hydro-cracking unit, a 300,000-TPA, high-density polyethylene unit, a 300,000-TPA linear low-density polyethylene unit, a 60,000-TPA epoxy ethane unit, a 300,000-TPA glycol unit, 400,000-TPA polypropylene unit, a 400,000-TPA aroma hydrocarbon extraction unit, an 80,000-TPA methyl tert-butyl ether unit and a 30,000-TPA butylenes-1 unit. A 700-ton-per-hour waste water treatment plant, four 310-ton-per-hour circulating fluid bed boilers and three sets of 60-megawatt steam turbo generators and other auxiliary and public use facilities will be constructed.

The Wuhan ethylene project is characterized by its high self-reliance rate of raw-material supply. The Wuhan feeder line of the Yizheng-Changling (Jiangsu Province to Hunan Province) oil pipeline will ensure that the raw material supply to Sinopec's Wuhan and Jingmen refineries, whose 13 million-TPA combined annual oil-refining capacity will provide 100% raw materials needed for the project.

To facilitate production and transportation, the project is 1 kilometer away from the Yangtze River, making environmental protection a focus by many. Sinopec has said that with its 100% raw material self-reliance rate, it is confident to make this ethylene project environmentally friendly. Centered on this ethylene project, a large chemical industry park will be built, maximizing waste material recycle and re-use rate. Also, $54 million will be allocated just to build environmental protection facilities.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission's direction on promoting the use of Chinese-made equipment, under the same conditions, domestic ethylene equipment must be chosen over imported brands. This is posing a considerable challenge to Chinese-made equipment, given the environmental standards the project needs to achieve, a chemical industry insider said.

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