PetroChina’s Technology for Butadiene Recovery through C4Alkynes Hydrotreating Will Be Applied in Commercial Scale

The Petrochemical Research Institute of PetroChina has completed the PDP on technology for recovery of butadiene through C4alkynes hydrotreating which is ready for commercialization. It is told that Daqing Petrochemical Co., Dushanzi Petrochemical Co., Lanzhou Petrochemical Co. and Fushun Petrochemical Co. have all showed great concerns for the progress in the research on this topic. In August 2013 PetroChina has decided to launch the commercial test of this technology at Daqing Petrochemical Co., where this technology is expected to be first applied by the end of 2014. It is also learned that upon dissemination of this technology at enterprises in the PetroChina system the recovered butadiene can bring about an additional income amounting to billions of RMB along with apparent reduction of environmental pollution.

The pyrolysis C4hydrocarbons serve as the main feedstock for manufacture of butadiene. However, during extraction of butadiene it is generally required to vent a definite amount of C4alkynes, which would also carry over significant amount of butadiene. The C4alkynes are susceptible to fire and explosion hazards that can jeopardize the safe operation in the enterprise. Nevertheless, the techniques for utilization of C4alkynes are still not available in China. At present the total butadiene production capacity in the PetroChina system reaches about 1.0 Mt/a, while around 100 kt of C4alkynes are vented into the atmosphere annually.

It is expected that application of this technology can recover 40—50 thousand tons of butadiene a year inside the PetroChina system. The butadiene recovered thereby can increase an additional economic benefit totaling 400—500 million RMB to the PetroChina system, when the price of butadiene is sold at 10 thousand RMB a ton. Meanwhile the termination of venting a part of these chemical materials can obviously contribute to reduction of environmental pollution.