Yantai, Shandong – Wanhua plans to build new propylene oxide facility at its Yantai site using the ethylbenzene co-oxidation method that was developed in-house.
The company plans to pump CNY 3.25bn ($481m) investment into the project, with 300kT/year PO and 650kT/year styrene co-production capacity.
The project is slated to come on stream in 2021, according to the website of Shandong province’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Wanhua’s ethylbenzene co-oxidation technology passed the appraisal by an ad hoc committee of China’s Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation in January. It claims to be the first time such technology has been developed by a Chinese company.
A team of nearly 100 researchers has been working on the technology, which has been awarded 18 patents for key catalysts, reactor machinery and related processes.
The company has built a trial facility, with 500T/year PO and 1.1kT/year styrene co-production capacity that has been operating successfully for three months before the appraisal, said the commission’s website.
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