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China MTO/MTP – one more project starts

China, Markets, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects
By John Richardson on 13-Oct-2010

By Malini Hariharan

Shenhua Ningxia has finally produced onspec propylene at its new 470,000 tonnes/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant after starting trial operations last month.

This marks the successful start of China’s first MTP project, which is also the world’s largest. There is one more due by the end of the year -Datang Power’s 450,000 tonnes/year MTP plant.

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Pic source: CCPECO

Shenhua Ningxia plans to start trial operations at the downstream 500,000 tonnes/year polypropylene (PP) plant in the next two months with commercial operations scheduled for early 2011.

Meanwhile, the country’s first methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant operated by Shenhua Baotou has been taken offline and is likely to restart at the end of the month.

A company source said the shutdown of the whole complex, including utilities, was to prepare the site for the winter months. It would also allow the company to assess operating problems discovered since commissioning in xxx.

A second maintenance shutdown has also been planned for next April.

The Shenhua Baotou complex includes 1.8m tonnes/year methanol unit, 600,000 tonnes/year MTO facility and plants for 300,000 tonnes/year of polyethylene (PE) and 300,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP),

There is a great deal of interest in China on developing coal-to-chemical projects. And as highlighted by the blog earlier, successful commissioning of the first few projects is likely to trigger a new construction wave.