Jilin Petchem restarts phenol plant after 6-mth outage

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Jilin Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Chinese oil, gas and petrochemical major PetroChina, restarted its phenol-acetone unit early this week, ending a near-six month outage.

Product from the 120,000 tonne/year unit in Jilin, Jilin Province, which had been at the centre of one China's worst river pollution in recent years, could be available for sale from this weekend, a company source said late on Wednesday.

The plant was shut after an explosion at an adjacent aniline unit on 13 November last year. Benzene, aniline and nitrobenzene leaked into the Songhua River, a source of drinking water for tens of millions of people living in northeastern China and Russia.

During the closure, the producer carried out government-ordered modifications to the plant’s waste management system.