In recent years, China's propylene oxide industry has developed rapidly. It is estimated that the total domestic production of propylene oxide will reach 2.8 million tons in 2018, and the apparent consumption is expected to exceed 3 million tons. The next 3-5 years is domestic propylene oxide. The new capacity will be concentrated on the time of the launch. If the planned new capacity can be put into production as scheduled, it is estimated that the total domestic production capacity of propylene oxide will exceed 6 million tons by 2021.
Although the current development of the propylene oxide industry is better, the industry is also facing challenges in its development. Technical barriers and environmental pressures have a profound impact on the subsequent development of the industry.
On September 19th, at the '2018 China Propylene Oxide Industry Innovation and Development Forum' held in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, delegates conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions on industry development issues.
Pan Jie, deputy editor-in-chief of China Chemical Industry News, said that under the new normal, the chemical industry is facing downward pressure. With the strengthening of environmental protection policies, chemical companies are also facing greater challenges, especially in the current trade friction between China and the United States. Under the background. The traditional high-emission, high-pollution development model is no longer feasible. The whole industry is calling for green development. Developing advanced production processes and promoting industrial supply-side reforms are urgently needed by the industry. In the propylene oxide industry. Domestic chemical companies are on the road of green development. Sinopec HPPO technology has broken the monopoly of foreign companies' technology. Dawn Chemical Research Institute and Yichang Su Peng Technology Co., Ltd. have made great breakthroughs in supporting hydrogen peroxide technology.
Dong Zhanfeng, a professor at the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, pointed out that China is currently facing a lot of environmental pressures, and is in the historical stage of pressure accumulation and weight-bearing. The major changes in the national environmental protection strategy will make more use of market economy incentives. Solve the problem of capacity withdrawal and guide the green development of the industry, see the global and national green development trend, plan strategically ahead of time, accelerate the transformation of green development, implement the green supply chain competition strategy, strengthen the science and technology drive, and improve the level of environmental governance modernization. Industry companies are crucial.
Dong Zhanfeng also stressed that environmental factors will become an important factor or even a decisive factor in the differentiation of enterprise competitiveness under the new situation.
Yu Chunmei, deputy chief engineer of the Ryukyu Jilin branch, mentioned that in 2017, the world's propylene oxide production capacity was 11.4 million tons, the consumption was about 9.86 million tons, and the operating rate reached 86.5%. It is estimated that the average annual growth rate of production capacity from 2017 to 2020 is 3.9%, the average annual growth rate of demand is 4.3%. In 2017, the domestic effective production capacity of propylene oxide is 3.255 million tons/year, the output is 2.65 million tons, and the apparent consumption is 2.879 million tons. The market situation is good and the demand continues to grow. China's propylene oxide project construction is fiery. 'Twelfth Five-Year' is the peak period of China's propylene oxide expansion. By the end of the '13th Five-Year' period, China will usher in the peak of centralized production of propylene oxide. The overcapacity is beginning to emerge. As the domestic propylene oxide supply and demand gap gradually decreases, the industry may face overcapacity in 2021.
According to the downstream application of propylene oxide from the polyether manager of Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd., in 2017, about 76% of propylene oxide in China was used to produce polyether polyol. The production and demand of polyether directly affected the propylene oxide industry. Development. In 2017, domestic polyether production capacity was 5.865 million tons, output was 2.725 million tons, and the operating rate was only 46.5%. It is expected that the production capacity will exceed 8 million tons/year in 2021, and the output will be 3.8 million tons. The production capacity will be seriously over-resourced. Vigilance throughout the propylene oxide industry.
On-site interview with Lin Min, senior expert of Sinopec, Institute of Petrochemical Science
Lin Min, a professor at the Petrochemical Research Institute of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, pointed out that propylene oxide is an important bulk organic chemical raw material, among the 50 largest chemicals in the world, and second only to polypropylene. Large propylene derivatives.
At present, the production of propylene oxide in the industry mainly adopts the chlorohydrin method, the co-oxidation method and the direct oxidation of hydrogen peroxide (HPPO) method. The chlorohydrin method is mature, but the energy consumption is high and the pollution is serious. The co-oxidation method is lower than the chlorohydrin method, but The investment is large, the cost is high, and it is restricted by the joint product market. The technology is also monopolized by foreign companies. The HPPO process has high atomic utilization, simple process, low investment, mild conditions, and environmental friendliness. However, the technology is difficult, only the United States, Germany. Master HPPO industrialization technology
Professor Lin pointed out that the key to the HPPO process is catalyst. In the 1980s, ENI invented titanium silicalite (TS-1), which combines the suitability of molecular sieves with the redox of transition metal titanium with good catalytic oxidation activity. Selectivity, a revolutionary advancement in the catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons, is known as a milestone in the field of molecular sieves. Prior to the industrialization of Sinopec hollow titanium silicon molecular sieves, no other companies except the ENI company could industrially produce titanium-silicon molecular sieves.
Through technological breakthroughs, Sinopec broke through the TS-1 intellectual property barrier of titanium-silicon molecular sieves. It pioneered hollow titanium-silicon molecular sieves and obtained invention patents in China, the United States, Europe and Japan, making Sinopec the second independent intellectual property right in the world. A company that can industrially produce titanium silicon molecular sieves.
On June 18, 2013, the construction of Changling Refining & Chemical 100,000 tons/year propylene oxide industrial demonstration unit using Sinopec HPPO process was started. On December 6, 2014, the test was started, and the qualified products were produced on the 21st of the month. 2018 In April, the conversion rate and selectivity were ≥ 98%, and the purity of propylene oxide was ≥ 99. 96%.
For the HPPO process, the supply of hydrogen peroxide is a big problem. Yi Zhi Su Peng Technology Co., Ltd. chief engineer Yi Zhihong pointed out that 100,000 tons / propylene oxide need to support 150,000 tons (50%) / year of hydrogen peroxide. Jilin Shenhua The propylene oxide production unit of Jizhen Chemical Co., Ltd. is 300,000 tons/year. The domestic propylene oxide plant of the same scale has started to be launched. The demand for supporting 800,000 tons (27.5%) of the scale hydrogen peroxide unit has been realized. In the above-mentioned scale of hydrogen peroxide equipment, in terms of technology, Evonik and other foreign original fluidized bed technologies have obvious advantages upstream, but economically, whether it is tangible assets and intangible assets investment, or operating costs, there is no current domestic market conditions. What are the advantages. It is almost impossible for domestic traditional fixed-bed technology to achieve such a large scale.
Yichang Su Peng's new fixed bed technology has been successfully applied in the 100,000 tons/year HPPO plant of Sinopec Changling Refining & Chemical Company. After more than three years of development and progress, the current single scale can reach 400,000 tons (27.5%). In order to adapt to the above scale, the two-device parallel scheme is adopted, and the reliability and cost performance are dominant. It can be used as the preferred technology for large-scale hydrogen peroxide installations in China.
The forum was co-sponsored by China Chemical Industry News, National Carbonate Industry Alliance, and China Chemical Industry Development Research Institute.