Sinopec Starts Work on Coal to Chemicals Complex (Platts)

Sinopec starts work on $2.8 bil coal-based petchem complex in southwest China

Singapore (Platts) — State-owned China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, and the provincial government of Guizhou has launched a coal-based petrochemical project in southwest China, which involves the oil major investing Yuan 18 billion ($2.8 billion) for the first phase of the project.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held on Wednesday, according to a report by Sinopec published on its website on Friday.

In the first phase, Sinopec will build a 1.8 million mt/year coal-to-methanol complex, a 600,000 mt/year methanol-to-olefins unit, a 300,000 mt/year liner low density polyethylene plant and a 300,000 mt/year polypropylene plant.

The Guizhou provincial government is also planning to build a 5 million mt/year coal-to-oil project, which has been submitted to the central government for approval.

The coal-to-oil project is estimated to cost Yuan 75 billion and would involve converting 20 million mt/year of coal to produce 5 million mt/year of oil.

The project is to be located in Xingren county’s Qianxinan city, which has proven coal reserves of about 7.53 billion mt/year. But as the local coal processing industry is not well developed, 80% of the coal produced is sold to other regions of China.

In August, Sinopec, and US-based Syntroleum Corp. started operations of a coal-to-liquids “demonstration facility” at Sinopec’s Zhenhai refinery in East China’s Zhejiang province.

The 80 b/d facility converts coal, asphalt and petroleum coke into synthetic liquids.

See article here.

Categories

Archives