China's Sinopec SK Wuhan Petrochemical has taken its cracker complex off line for a major turnaround that was delayed by six months because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The company, a 65:35 joint venture between China's state-controlled Sinopec and South Korean firm SK Global Chemical, started the 70-day turnaround at its Wuhan operations in central China's Hubei province yesterday.
The turnaround was postponed from April because of the lockdown in Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged.
Two integrated downstream units, a 300,000 t/yr linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) line and 400,000 t/yr polypropylene (PP) plant, were also shut yesterday for a 69-day turnaround. The plant's 300,000 t/yr high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit was shut down today for 67 days.
SK Wuhan will conduct a debottlenecking exercise during the turnaround. The work will expand the cracker's ethylene production by 300,000 t/yr from the current 800,000 t/yr, and add another 150,000 t/yr of propylene on top of current output of 400,000 t/yr. The expanded capacity will start up at the beginning of 2021.
The cracker is mainly fed by naphtha, but has the ability to take 10pc propane.
SK Wuhan has built a new 300,000 t/yr HDPE line, 300,000 t/yr PP unit and 60,000 t/yr butadiene plant to use the additional olefins production. These units will also start operations in early 2021.
