W. R. Grace Wins China PP Contracts

US technology company W.R. Grace has won two contracts in China for its Unipol PP process. The first award was from Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical, which is building a 350,000 t/y PP line at its site in Quanzhou, Fujian province. The unit is expected to go on stream in 2020, producing high-end impact copolymers.

The new line is part of an ethylene and refinery expansion project, which will see the addition of a 1 million t/y ethylene cracker as well as plants producing 800,000 t/y PX, 400,000 t/y PE, 500,000 t/y of MEG, as well as other derivative units.

Sinochem Quanzhou previously licensed W.R. Grace’s Unipol PP technology for a 200,000 t/y plant that started up in 2014. Tang Huiyuan, standing deputy general manager of Sinochem Quanzhou and general manager of the ethylene cracker project, said: “Our priority is to efficiently deliver a broad range of products to our customers. This technology is widely accepted and allows us to be extremely competitive.”

Oriental Energy (Ningbo) New Material also chose Unipol for two new 400,000 t/y PP lines that it will build in Ningbo. The lines will go into operation in 2020, producing homopolymer and random copolymers. This is second time around too for Oriental, which chose Unipol for a 400,000 t/y PP plant in 2012.

Wang Mingxiang, Oriental Energy’s chairman, said the new plant will serve growing market demand for PP in China.

To date, W.R. Grace has granted 26 licenses for Unipol PP reactors in China, exceeding 8 million t/y of capacity in total.