The Process And Technology Selection For Polyethylene Plant In Newly Built Ethylene Cracking And Downstream Plants

Sinopec Hainan Refining&Chemical Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as the "HainanRefinery") is a subsidiary of China Petrochemical large industrial enterprises,which is the21stcentury’s first newly built refinery.Currently it has raw oil processing capacity of8millionstons/year.Over the years,Hainan refinery has remained good profits,precisely becausethe company has strong development potential and good profitability.In May2013,with thejoint efforts of the company and Hainan Province,Hainan Refining&Chemical New10millions tons/year of ethylene and refinery expansion project formally approved by theNational Development and Reform Commission.This article is for the research of newly builtethylene cracking plant, which is about the selection for polyethylene process andtechnology.The main work is as following:The status and trend of polyethylene industrial development in China and worldwide.From the world polyethylenesupply and demand balance,the current status is in oversupplycondition.According to preliminary statistics,from2009to2010,the countries in the MiddleEast and the Asia-Pacific region will focused on new ethylene plant operation.So the releasedcapacity of ethylene will overrun from the demand growth,when the global ethylene capacityutilization will fall to87%-88%.In recent years,with the rapid growth of polyethyleneproduction capacity,during"The twelfth Five"period,China willbuild,renovation and expansionof a group formed several megaton ethylene production base,whose polyethylene ethyleneproduction capacity will be further expanded accordingly.In2015the total capacity isexpected to be about15million tons per year.In the next few years,the polyethylene supplyand demand situation is likely to change from tight supply gradually tend to equal or surplus.The research is according to the Hainan refinery ethylene resources based on thecomparison deeply research on site and technological exchanges meeting to the advancedtechnology local and aboard.Considering the amount of ethylene raw material, there are threekinds of processing solutions,a:300hundred tons/year HDPE,b:300hundred tons/year LDPEand c:300hundred tons/year LLDPE.As well as confirmation from the of patent supplier,all ofthe three kinds of process are mature technology,fully meeting the capacity requirement ofprocessing300hundred tons/year. Therefore,the selection of technology should be fullyconsidered the flexibility and competitiveness in the markets.After detailed comparison inthree polyethylene markets,technology and processing solutions,an analysis report ininvestment,profit and market competitiveness was made. A new set of300hundred tons/yearHDPE plant is the most reasonable.