MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lummus Technology announced the start-up of its CDAlky alkylation unit at Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co. Ltd.'s (ZPC) refinery in Zhejiang Province, China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The unit has a capacity of 45,000 BPSD of alkylate product, making it the largest alkylation unit ever licensed by Lummus.
"The successful start-up for ZPC, plus the one we announced recently for Valero, underscore the best-in-class technology solutions we offer to major operators all over the world," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. "Given the unit's unique and advanced features, such as the scale and the nature of the feedstock, this achievement reflects Lummus' ability to adapt, innovate and collaborate closely with our customers."
The start-up is the second Lummus CDAlky unit at ZPC's complex for a combined capacity of 59,000 BPSD of alkylate production, making it the second largest alkylation complex in the world.
The new alkylation unit processes C4s from upstream refining and petrochemical units, resulting in a very high concentration of isobutylene in the total olefins blend while producing a superior alkylate quality.
Earlier this year, Lummus announced the successful start-up of the first C5 CDAlky unit in the world, and Lummus' first CDAlky unit in the US located at Valero's Saint Charles Refinery in Norco, Louisiana. The ZPC and Valero start-ups demonstrate CDAlky's flexibility to process olefins from different sources and to produce premium alkylate with lower capital and operating costs.
As MRC reported before, in June 2021, DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) announced the startup of the STRATCO alkylation units at the Zhongke Refinery and Petrochemical Company LTC refinery in Zhejiang, China and the Sinopec Shanghai Company (SPC) refinery in Jinshan, Shanghai, China. Both STRATCO alkylation units at Sinopec Zhongke and Sinopec Shanghai are designed to process MTBE raffinate feedstock and produce 9,240 bpsd (360 kmta) and 10,240 bpsd (400 kmta) of alkylate, respectively.
We remind that state-backed Sinopec Corp. has recently started a 5.17 billion yuan (USD811 million) refinery upgrade at a subsidiary plant in eastern China that aims to produce cleaner fuels and boost output of higher-value chemicals. The investment in Yangtze Petrochemical Corp, in Nanjing city in the province of Jiangsu, covers eight key facilities, such as a 2.6-million-tonne-per-year residue hydrocracker and a 2.8 MMtpy catalytic cracker.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC