US chemical and catalysts producer W.R. Grace has announced that it was contracted in the fourth quarter of 2016 to license its Unipol PP gas-phase process technology to China’s Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology.

The new PP plant in Dongguan, Guangzhou province, will produce 600,000 t/y of homopolymer resins in dual reactor lines, using Grace’s non-phthalate Consista PP catalysts. The facility is expected to begin operations in 2019. Wang Ligui, vice president of Dongguan Grand Resources, said the technology and catalyst system is the “most economical way to rapidly develop our portfolio of products.”

According to the Maryland-headquartered chemical company, the Unipol process is the simplest of all PP technologies, with fewer moving parts and less equipment than competing alternatives. This, it said, results in lower capital, operating and maintenance costs while maximizing reliability. The project represents the 20^th and 21^st Unipol PP licenses in China.

Earlier this month, Dongguan Grand Resource awarded a contract to Swiss specialty chemicals producer Clariant and US engineering contractor CB&I to jointly develop a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant at its site in Dongguan.