The turnaround was completed while simultaneously carrying out the debottlenecking of an ethylene cracker and process units. Both were finished ahead of time and within budget, says the company.
Debottlenecking the ethylene cracker, ethylene oxide/ethylene glycols, and styrene monomer/propylene oxide process units will improve the site's competiveness by increasing capacity and reducing unit costs. After the debottlenecking, the annual ethylene capacity went from 800kt/y to 950kt/y, with total petrochemical production capacity at the plant increasing from 2.3 million t to 2.7 million t. The site started operations in January 2006 and supplies products primarily to Guangdong and the high consumption areas of China's southeast coastal economic zones.
"Executing a turnaround and simultaneous debottlenecking project on this scale, within budget and on time is impressive and highlights the robust working partnership between Shell and CNOOC," said Ben van Beurden, Executive Vice President, Shell Chemicals. "The decision to increase capacity at Nanhai supports the Shell strategy to grow selectively and to continue to remain a leader in the expanding Asian petrochemicals market."
The planned turnaround took place in Q2 this year and included construction of an eighth liquid cracking furnace for light and heavy feedstock. Four out of five derivative plants were debottlenecked by 10 30 %. Shell reports the current capacities as follows:
Ethylene 950kt/y
Propylene 500kt/y
Butadiene 165kt/y
Low Density Polyethylene 250kt/y
High Density Polyethylene 260kt/y
Polypropylene 260kt/y
Mono-Ethylene Glycol 350kt/y
Styrene Monomer 640kt/y
Propylene Oxide 290kt/y
Polyols 170kt/y
Propylene Glycol 60kt/y
In addition to a broad range of planned maintenance activities, more than 1,000 pressure vessels were opened for statutory inspections. The project also included significant instrumentation work.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
