UOP Technology Selected for World’s Largest Paraxylene Unit in China

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). PetroChina Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CKKHF.PK) (CNPC) (Beijing, China) has selected UOP to supply technology, basic engineering services and equipment for an aromatics project that will include the largest capacity, single train adsorption unit for paraxylene production in the world.

The new plant, to be installed at PetroChina’s Urumqi complex, will produce one million tons of paraxylene per annum and will use the proprietary Parex process for the adsorption unit. The paraxylene output is a key ingredient in the production of PTA (purified terephthalic acid), which will be used to make polyester for fabric and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) chips for carbonated soft drink and water bottles.

The new plant will also produce 360,000 tons per annum of benzene and in addition to the parex unit, the complex will be comprised of other process units designed by UOP, including a CCR Platforming unit to convert naphtha from oil feedstock to aromatics and hydrogen. An Isomar unit will convert other xylenes to paraxylene. Basic engineering on the project is now underway, and commissioning of the complex, located in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, is scheduled for early 2009.

This will be the second aromatics complex UOP has designed for PetroChina’s subsidiary, Urumqi Petrochemical Company (UPC). In 1995, UPC commissioned the first aromatics complex in western China, which included Parex, Isomar and Tatoray technologies licensed by UOP. Worldwide UOP, a Honeywell company (NYSE:HON ) (Morris Township, New Jersey), has licensed more than 725 individual process units for the production of aromatics including more than 238 CCR Platforming process units, 147 Sulfolane process and 88 Parex process units.

PetroChina is CNPC’s largest subsidiary and is responsible for its domestic operations in the areas of oil and gas development, oil refining and petrochemical production, marketing pipeline transportation and natural gas sales and utilization. In 2005, it was ranked 9th in the world’s top 50 petroleum companies and reported $86.3 billion in sales for the year.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.