Zhongyuan Petrochemical Makes Breakthrough by Integrating MTO with OCC Technology

The SINOPEC’s Zhongyuan Petrochemical Company (ZPC) has integrated the MTO technology with OCC (olefins production via deep catalytic cracking) package process with independent intellectual property rights owned by SINOPEC to set up the first in the world OCC/MTO integrated unit. It is learned that after integration of MTO with the OCC process the propylene/ethylene selectivity has increased to 82%—87% from the previous figure of 80%. The 60 kt/a OCC unit for processing C4olefins at ZPC, which has been adopting the technology and catalysts licensed by the SINOPEC Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute, has came on stream in 2009. This unit is the world’s first commercial unit using the all-crystalline catalysts with multi-grade pores, with its overall technical indicators reaching the internationally advanced level. At the initial stage for construction of SINOPEC’s 600 kt/a MTO demonstration unit of coal chemistry, ZPC has worked out a plan to integrate this unit with the OCC unit in order to create more economic benefits. Upon taking into account the changes in feedstock quality after startup of the MTO unit, the OCC unit began to process a C4fraction containing 5%—10% of C5hydrocarbons by gradually switching from processing a feedstock composed of refinery C4fraction and 2-butene to a mixture of C4fraction (provided by the MTO process) plus 2-butene. This company has been engaging in secondary technical developments based on different feed patterns in order to be adapted to different combination of high-olefin and high-C5feedstocks to enhance the coupling of the OCC unit with the MTO unit.