Beijing (JLC), June 23, 2020—China’s state-owned Sinochem is poised to open an expansion at its Quanzhou refinery in southeast Fujian, which will add a cracker capable of producing 1 mln mt/yr of ethylene and associated units.
The Quanzhou refinery has completed construction of a condensate processing unit with designed capacity of 3 mln mt/yr on June 20, making it to move closer to its target that will open the ethylene cracker and associated units in August.
The unit is mainly designed to process condensate oil from the Middle East, as well as Saudi Arabian extra-light crude.
It aims to produce naphtha to feed the new ethylene plant. Its condensate processing unit is able to yield naphtha at a ratio of around 30%, a company source said.
Sinochem plans to together open the condensate processing unit and the new ethylene cracker in August.
The Quanzhou complex has lighted fires at two of its cracking furnaces on June 16, indicating it will start a trial run at the cracker with running naphtha soon.
The crack will be fed by naphtha and LPG. LPG supply from the refinery is going to fall from current 1,400 mt/day to 1,200 mt/day gradually during the trial period for cracker. And its LPG availability for the market would decrease to only 300-400 mt/day once the cracker starts commercially operations, a company source said.
The Quanzhou refinery has a nameplate crude processing capacity of 12 mlm mt/yr, with main products comprising gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
The expansion at the refinery also includes 11 chemical units for the downstream products, such as HDPE, MTBE, ABS.
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