Honeywell will provide a suite of process technologies to the second phase of Zhejiang Petrochemical’s integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, China—the largest in the country.
Honeywell will supply technology licenses, engineering design, equipment, catalysts and adsorbents—which will more than double the plant’s existing aromatics production capacity. In addition, Honeywell will deploy its Experion Process Knowledge System to provide process controls and automation systems across the facility.
The second phase of the complex will include a two-train aromatics production facility using Honeywell’s Sulofane, Isomar and Tatoray processes. It will produce 4.8 million metric tons per year of paraxylene—a primary ingredient in polyester. The complex will also feature three Honeywell Unicracking process units that will convert vacuum gas oil and distillate into petrochemical compounds. Two Continuous Catalyst Regeneration Platforming units will produce the aromatics themselves, as well as blend petrochemical stocks to make high-octane fuels. A reverse Butamer unit will produce butane.
These processes will be governed by Experion Distributed Control Systems specifically designed and configured to integrate the Honeywell processes throughout the complex into one automated whole.
"This second phase of the complex by itself will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce another six million tons per year of aromatics when completed," said Bryan Glover, Honeywell’s Vice President and General Manager of Process Technology and Equipment.
Construction on the second phase will begin after phase one is fully operational; that part of the complex is expected to start partial test operations in February, with a full trial operation in the second quarter of 2019.
Honeywell already played an important part in the first phase of the project, providing technologies for hydroprocessing and heavy oil upgrading. Honeywell also provided processes to make aromatics (hydrocarbon substances derived from crude oil) for plastic resins, films and fibers that form the basis of millions of products.
Honeywell is already a leader in process technology for aromatics production—and supplying technologies for this massive complex, which could be one of the biggest in the world, will only add to its dominance in the sector. More than 100 complexes around the world—and more than 700 individual aromatics process units—already use Honeywell products.
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