In recent years, the market demand for metallocene polyolefin products is rising rapidly. As the number one producer of polyolefin products in the world, China should seize this opportunity to develop high-performance metallocene polyolefin technology and promote polyolefins from the development of core catalysts. The industry is better and stronger, and it has achieved 'changing the road.' In the interview, many industry experts expressed this view.
Industrialization into the fast lane
Compared with the traditional Ziegler-Natta polyolefin catalyst, the metallocene catalyst has unique properties, can control the relative molecular mass of the polymer, stereoregular structure, comonomer content, etc., thereby producing polyolefin resin with excellent performance. Metallocene polyolefin catalysts have a short industrial application time, and the polyolefin products produced by them have a small market capacity. However, due to the excellent product performance, the market demand for metallocene polyolefin products has rapidly increased in recent years, and various high performances have been achieved. Featured products have been recognized by the market, such as metallocene polyethylene, metallocene polypropylene, metallocene polyolefin elastomer, metallocene polyolefin lubricant (PAO) and metallocene polyolefin wax. 'China Petroleum and Petrochemical Research Institute Yi Jianjun, director of the olefins research office, said.
'At present, the industrialization of elastomers, ultra-low density polyethylene and bimodal polyethylene products has been realized in foreign countries. The related technologies are mainly concentrated in the hands of foreign companies such as Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, DSM, Mitsui Oil Chemical, etc. ExxonMobil has the strongest technical strength. According to statistics, more than 100 brands of metallocene polyolefins have been industrialized worldwide, with output exceeding 10 million tons last year. Zhang Peng, senior engineer of China Petroleum and Petrochemical Research Institute .
At present, the development of China's metallocene polyolefin has also entered the fast lane of industrialization. Zhang Peng introduced that in September 2007, Daqing Petrochemical's 60,000 tons/year LLDPE unit produced the first metallocene catalyst in China. Ethylene products; since then, Shenyang Paraffin Chemical Company, Dushanzi Petrochemical Company introduced the technology of Mev. Polyethylene in the United States in August 2014 and December 2015 respectively; the production of 60,000 tons/year of industrial equipment of Qilu Petrochemical Co., Ltd. Petrochemical Beijing Chemical Industry Research Institute successfully carried out industrialization experiments on its own technology.
Yi Jianjun introduced the progress in China in recent years. In June 2017, Harbin Petrochemical used catalyst PMP-01 to produce high transparent metallocene polypropylene mPP6006 on batch liquid bulk polypropylene plant, which realized metallocene for the first time. The industrial production of polypropylene; the Lanzhou Center of China Petroleum and Petrochemical Institute carried out the pilot development of metallocene polypropylene fiber material MPH36Y at the end of 2017; Yanshan Petrochemical first realized the production of metallocene polypropylene in industrialized continuous equipment in March 2018.
Independent catalyst development lag
'Catalyst is the core of the technological progress of the polyolefin industry. It can greatly increase the yield of polymers, simplify the polymerization process, improve product quality, and expand the application range of products.' Zhang Peng said.
'But from the current domestic situation, we are seriously lagging behind in the structural design of metallocene catalysts, process development of solution polymerization, application research of products, etc. Due to the introduction of technology, and the development of metallocene polyolefin technology is difficult. , The investment is large, and the development time is long. At present, there are few research units engaged in the development of metallocene polyolefins in China and the power is scattered. ' Zhang Peng said.
Yi Jianjun also believes that the catalyst is still the core of the metallocene polyolefin process research and development. However, most of the catalysts used in the large-scale production of domestic metallocene polyolefins come from foreign companies. China has not yet completed a complete set of metallocene polyolefin catalysts. technology.
It is understood that the current rapid development in China is the metallocene catalyst for ethylene polymerization, Sinopec is basically industrialized, and PetroChina is also close to industrialization. The metallocene catalyst developed by private enterprise-Zibo Xinsu is only one step away from industrialization. The research and development of propylene metallocene catalysts is still in its infancy. China Petroleum and Petrochemical Institute has broken through the key technology of metallocene catalyst loading, solved its applicability in existing polypropylene equipment, and successfully developed the first transparent partition in China. Supported metallocene polypropylene catalyst for propylene PMP-01.
Multi-initiative to promote industrial applications
In today's world polyolefin industry, the research and development of metallocene catalysts and polyolefins is extremely active, and it is necessary to seize this opportunity, so that it is possible for China's polyolefin industry to catch up with the world's advanced level in a short period of time. In accordance with the national petrochemical industry plan, according to the current situation of China's metallocene polyolefin industry, set up a special fund to encourage research and development, integrate scientific and technological strength, focus on key points, carry out technical research in a step-by-step manner, improve necessary small tests, pilot plant construction, To effectively promote the transformation of results and application development," said Professor Wang Pingfang of Northwest Normal University.
Zhang Peng believes that the current development of metallocene catalysts for polyethylene should be focused on, and efforts should be made to achieve industrial applications in a relatively short period of time. At the same time, metallocene polyolefin elastomers, bimodal polyolefins, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene Such as the development and marketing efforts of high-end polyolefin products, increase the proportion of polypropylene pipe materials, capacitor film materials, etc., to enhance the competitiveness of China's polyolefin industry.
Compared with traditional polyolefin resins, metallocene polyolefin resins do have many excellent properties, but due to the relatively narrow molecular weight distribution, the processing problems caused by this also largely restrict the metallocene polyolefin resin. Production and application. Therefore, the processing and application research of metallocene resin should be strengthened, so that the existing processing equipment can adapt to the characteristics of the new resin, in addition to considering the screw structure of the existing processing equipment, the gap of the membrane, the diameter of the wind ring, A large amount of research work has been carried out on the selection of processing aids and processing technology. 'Zhao Dongbo, deputy director of Lanzhou Petrochemical Ethylene Plant, said.
At present, the domestic industrial production of a few metallocene polyolefins is mostly in the stage of development or trial production, the output is relatively small, and the product performance is not stable. Yi Jianjun believes that in the future, along with Qilu Petrochemical, Daqing Petrochemical, Dushanzi Petrochemical and other metallocene polyolefin production scale, this problem may be solved. The large-scale performance of stable domestic metallocene polyolefin products into the market, will be conducive to the use of downstream users, especially large processing enterprises, thereby improving the market Demand for metallocene products.