Chinese private-sector refiner and petrochemical producer Zhejiang Petrochemical (ZPC) fed naphtha into its 1.4mn t/yr No.2 ethylene cracker in east China's Zhejiang province on 11 April.
ZPC expects to obtain on-specification ethylene and propylene production at the new naphtha-fed cracker in a week or two. This is ZPC's second naphtha-fed cracker, starting up 16 months after its first 1.4mn t/yr cracker came on line at the end of December 2019.
The No.2 cracker can produce 1.4mn t/yr of ethylene and 700,000 t/yr of propylene and has fully integrated downstream units, which include 450,000 t/yr of linear-low-density/high-density polyethylene (LLD/HDPE), 350,000 t/yr of HDPE, 100,000/800,000 t/yr of ethylene oxide (EO)/ethylene glycol (EG), 450,000 t/yr of polypropylene (PP), 260,000 t/yr of acrylonitrile and 200,000 t/yr of butadiene capacity. The downstream units are expected to start up gradually during May-June.
ZPC is building a No.3 naphtha-fed cracker, also with 1.4mn t/yr of ethylene capacity. The No.3 cracker will likely be put into operations late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of this year. Its integrated downstream units include a 300,000 t/yr ethylene vinyl acetate plant, a 400,000 t/yr low-density polyethylene line, a 280,000/600,000 t/yr propylene oxide/styrene monomer unit, a 100,000/800,000 t/yr EO/EG plant, a 450,000 t/yr PP line and a 400,000/250,000 t/yr phenol/acetone unit.
