MOSCOW (MRC) -- Privately-controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), China's single-largest refiner and petrochemical producer, is exploring new technologies such as direct processing of crude into olefins to cut carbon emissions, reported Reuters with reference to a company executive's statement.
Refining and petrochemical manufacturing contributes about 5% of China's total carbon emissions, or about 400-500 MM tons, told Liu Minghui, ZPC's vice president, at a live-streamed oil seminar hosted by Zhejiang provincial government in Zhoushan.
ZPC is working with China's Tsinghua University to develop crude-to-olefin know-how that is expected to reduce carbon footprint by nearly half compared to the traditional process of obtaining feedstock for petrochemicals during the crude refining process, Liu said.
There are no plants in China, as yet, with the technologies needed for production on a commercial scale.
Meantime, the Zhoushan-based company is also advancing plans to capture and utilize CO2, with annual usable volume of around 5.2 MM tons, for the production of synthetic gas and acetic acid, the latter used for making paints.
Citing a report from state refiner Sinopec Corp, Liu said downstream consumption of refined oil products including diesel, gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil emits 1 B tons of CO2 each year. China, the world's largest green-house gases emitter, last month laid out an action plan aiming to bring its carbon emissions to a peak before 2030, including putting a cap on oil refining capacity and promoting renewables.
Liu said ZPC, with a refining capacity of 800,000 bbl per day, has the lowest yield of refined fuel products such as diesel and gasoline among its domestic peers, as it has chosen to maximize production of high-end chemicals such as polycarbonate (PC) plastic used for packaging and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) used to make sports wear.
ZPC also operates over 20 MM tons per year hydrocracking facilities, also the largest in China, allowing the firm to make premium quality diesel and gasoline that meet the highest National 6 standards, Liu added.
As MRC informed earlier, in April 2021, ZPC started up its No. 2 cracker in Zhoushan, China, which is part of the company's phase 2 petrochemical project in the cournty. Thus, the cracker with an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons/year of ethylene and 700,000 tons/year of propylene began trial runs in the first week of April. The commercial production at this facility was received later that month.
We remind that ZPC started operations at its No. 1 cracker in the first half of November 2019, whereas the commercial procution at this cracker was received in late December 2019.
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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC