China Wanhua Chemical to invest in new Fujian PDH plant

Chinese petrochemical company Wanhua Chemical will invest 2.4bn yuan ($370mn) to build a new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Fuzhou, Fujian province that will also include downstream polypropylene derivatives units.

The PDH plant project will be carried out under Wanhua and Fujian Petrochemical's joint investment agreement for the Fujian Industrial Park project that was signed in March 2020. Wanhua holds 80pc of the joint venture with the rest held by Fujian Petrochemical. Wanhua plans to invest in PDH and polypropylene derivatives in the east wing of the industrial park. The west wing of the park will house polyurethane projects.

The PDH project had just received approval from the board of Wanhua Group, but further details of the project remained unclear.

Wanhua is the largest propane consumer in China with annual demand of 3.2mn t/yr. The firm runs a 750,000 t/yr PDH plant in Yantai, Shandong province and its propane-fed 1mn t/yr ethylene cracker started up in November 2020.

Fujian Petrochemical owns 25pc in the joint investment of the 200,000 b/d Gulei refinery. Sinopec also owns 25pc and a private-sector Taiwanese firm owns 50pc. The refinery is building an 800,000 t/yr ethylene cracker in Zhangzhou, Fujian province that is scheduled to start up in the third quarter of this year. The cracker will have a 50,000t LPG terminal with two 120,000m³ storage tanks for propane and butane.

Chinese private-sector firm Fujian Meide Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Fujian Soft Packaging, started its 660,000 t/yr PDH unit in Fuzhou, Fujian province in early February.