Chinese private-sector firm Zhejiang Huahong Petrochemical ramped up operations at its new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit to 90pc today, signalling the plant's successful start-up.
The plant, which uses UOP technology, is located at Jiaxing in east China's Zhejiang province. It has a nameplate capacity of 450,000 t/yr for propylene and will consume 540,000 t/yr of LPG when operating at capacity.
Zhejiang Huahong first attempted to start up the plant in mid-July and produced propylene on 17 July. But a faulty pump forced the firm to shut the plant after just a couple of days of operations. Zhejiang Huahong attempted to start up the plant again at the end of July but was unable to achieve stable operations.
The plant kept operating rates low at about 30-40pc for about two weeks, before Zhejiang Huahong managed to resolve key technical issues last week.
Zhejiang Huahong is a 50:50 joint venture between Shanghai Huayi and Zhejiang Hongji.
Propylene supplies from the PDH plant are mainly being used for Shanghai Huayi's acetic acid (AA) and Zhejiang Hongji's polypropylene (PP) production. Shanghai Huayi has 360,000 t/yr of AA capacity at Caojing in Shanghai, while Zhejiang Hongji operates a 240,000 t/yr PP plant in Jiaxing. Zhejiang Hongji plans to start up its second 240,000 t/yr PP unit, also in Jiaxing, by the end of this year.
