PR93126

BEIJING, Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-The chemical yield of nearly 50 percent has reached internationally-advanced

levels.

-The technology significantly shortens the production process, lowers

production costs and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

-Sinopec's next step is to build a million-ton industrial demonstration plant.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, "Sinopec") has successfully

tested its key project, "Technological Development and Industrial Application

of Light Crude Oil Cracking into Ethylene," this month at Sinopec Tianjin.

The technology converts crude oil directly into ethylene, propylene and other

chemical products ("crude-to-chemicals") and realizes the first industrial

application of crude oil steam-cracking technology in China. The milestone is

of great significance to the transformation and upgrading of China's

petrochemical industry, also contributing to achieve "dual carbon" goals.

The crude oil steam-cracking technology is one of the "crude-to-chemicals"

solutions which "skips" the traditional crude oil refining process to directly

convert crude oil into valuable chemical products like ethylene and propylene –

analogous to making bread directly with wheat and eliminating the flour

grinding process. This approach will greatly shorten the production process,

lower production costs and significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon

emissions.

The technology was developed and engineered by Sinopec's Beijing Research

Institute of Chemical Industry and Sinopec Engineering Group (SEG) and the

industrial testing was carried out at Sinopec Tianjin. It has applied for 45

Chinese patents for invention and one international patent for invention. At

present, ExxonMobil and Sinopec are the only two companies to successfully

achieve industrial application of crude oil steam-cracking technology

worldwide. It's estimated that for every 1 million tons of crude oil processed

by this technology, nearly 500,000 tons of chemical products can be produced,

400,000 tons of which are high-value products such as ethylene, propylene,

light aromatics and hydrogen. Overall, Sinopec's technology has reached an

internationally-advanced level and presents huge economic value and potential.

A basic raw material of chemical products, ethylene is coined the "mother of

the petrochemical industry," and is one of the key benchmarks to measure the

development level of a country's petrochemical industry. As people's living

standards continues to improve, the global demand for chemical products is also

growing, and as basic raw materials, the demand for ethylene and propylene has

also increased accordingly. In general, the raw materials needed for producing

ethylene and propylene must go through the crude oil refining process at the

refineries, the production process of which is not only longer, but also only

30 percent of the crude oil is used to produce the chemical raw materials.

Sinopec has always emphasized the R&D and application of "crude-to-chemicals"

technologies. In April 2021, the catalytic cracking technology of crude oil

independently developed by Sinopec's Beijing Research Institute of Chemical

Industry, another "crude-to-chemicals" solution, also completed industrial

application in Yangzhou, which has made China a leader in catalytic cracking of

crude oil globally.

Similar to the crude oil steam-cracking technology, the chemical yield of

catalytic cracking is also about 50 percent, and combining the two technologies

is expected to increase the total amount of chemicals produced by crude oil to

more than 70 percent, which will become an economically efficient solution for

"crude-to-chemicals" conversion in the future.

Sinopec is preparing to carry out the development and engineering design of

packaged technology for the production of ethylene by steam-cracking 1 million

tons of crude oil at its Tahe company in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,

building an industrial demonstration plant for the direct production of

chemicals from crude oil and establishing a new model for the transformation

and development of China's petrochemical industry.

For the large-scale ethylene project planned for the future, the crude oil

steam-cracking technology will be included in the key technology comparison and

selection scheme, which will provide strong support to relieve the

contradiction between supply and demand as well as aiding the enterprises'

transformation and upgrading, making greater contributions to achieving 'dual

carbon' goals.

For more information, please visit Sinopec (http://www.sinopec.com/listco/en/).

Source: SINOPEC

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   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=407924

   Caption: Sinopec Successfully Completes China’s First Industrial Application of Crude

Oil Steam-Cracking Technology.