China's Zhong'an United Coal Chemical, a 50:50 joint venture between state-owned firms Sinopec and North Anhui Coal Power, has achieved on-specification production at its coal-to-olefin (CTO) complex.
The CTO complex in Anhui province, east China, has capacity to process 4mn t/yr of coal and produce up to 1.7mn t/yr of methanol, 350,000 t/yr of ethylene, 350,000 t/yr of propylene, along with derivative capacity of 350,000 t/yr for polyethylene (PE) and 350,000 t/yr for polypropylene (PP).
Zhong'an is operating its PP unit at a rate of 50-60pc, producing powder-grade PPH-T03. Its PE line is running at about 50pc capacity, producing linear low-density PE (LLDPE) 7042.
Zhong'an's PE and PP plants both use Sinopec's proprietary technologies.
China now has a total of 14 CTOs, including Zhong'an's Anhui complex. The country's CTO-based olefin capacity has reached 8.2mn t/yr, of which 3.2mn t/yr is ethylene and 5mn t/yr is propylene. All CTO plants are integrated with downstream PE and PP units, except for private-sector Qinghai Salt Lake's facility, which produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from ethylene.
