Sinopec Catalyst Tianjin New Material Production Base is put into operation

According to the introduction, Sinopec Catalyst Co., Ltd., as a specialized company under Sinopec, is a world-renowned, Asia's largest and China's top producer, supplier and service provider of oil refining and chemical catalysts. Its products cover six major categories including oil refining, polyolefins, basic organic raw materials, coal chemical engineering, environmental protection, adsorbents and additives, with over 300 types. It is fully committed to building the "chip" of Sinopec's refining and chemical industry. Currently, four of its products have reached the world's leading level in performance, and five types of catalysts have reached the world's advanced level. Its comprehensive strength has ranked second in the global catalyst industry for three consecutive years. 

Sinopec Catalyst (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (referred to as Catalyst Tianjin Company) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinopec Catalyst Co., Ltd. It is located in the Nangang Industrial Zone of Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area. Construction began in 2021 and it was officially registered and established in February 2022. The overall planning includes a 2,000-ton/year silver catalyst plant, a 1,250-ton/year polyolefin plant, a 200-ton/year spherical polypropylene catalyst plant and a 500-ton/year carrier plant, a 3-ton/year polyolefin elastomer catalyst pilot plant, as well as supporting public utility systems, auxiliary production facilities and living facilities. This project was participated in by enterprises such as Petrochemical Fourth Construction Company. 

Catalyst Tianjin Company has intensified its efforts in production technology innovation. By integrating process interlocks, intelligent recognition systems and DCS control, it has achieved an integrated approach to production monitoring, management and operation. This has led to the automation of the production process and the informatization of production management, driving the transformation and upgrading of product manufacturing from "traditional manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing". The company's production technology has broken the foreign monopoly and filled the domestic gap, realizing the import substitution of catalysts. 

The total investment of the project is over 5 billion yuan. The project is constructed in phases. The first phase has been completed and put into operation, while the second and third phases are under construction. The subsequent projects are in the planning stage and the feasibility study reports are being compiled. The first phase that has been put into operation mainly includes the construction of production facilities for silver catalysts, polyolefin catalysts and other catalysts, as well as the supporting auxiliary facilities. 

The silver catalyst device adopts the relevant patents with independent intellectual property rights of Sinopec. The comprehensive performance of the three types of YS silver catalysts produced, namely high selectivity, medium selectivity and "high efficiency", all reach the international advanced level, filling the technical gap of this type of catalyst in China. It further enhances the adaptability of domestic catalysts to ethylene glycol plants and provides support for breaking the foreign technology monopoly. The device takes powder blending technology, continuous pelletizing and forming technology, and continuous calcination technology as the core, and adopts centralized control, automated material transmission, precise metering and other technologies. Through optimizing equipment, instruments and layout schemes, it reduces material consumption, energy consumption and equipment wear, enhances the stability of the device operation, and realizes the automation of silver catalyst production, continuous process, and closed device, reducing production costs and achieving stable product quality and energy conservation and emission reduction goals. 

The polyolefin catalyst plant adopts a complete set of production technologies with independent intellectual property rights of Sinopec. The BSG catalyst produced by the plant has completely solved the two major problems of low bulk density of powder and easy clogging of the static mixer of the catalyst. It shows the advantages of high activity, less fine powder and good fluidity, and its comprehensive performance has reached the international leading level. The BCM catalyst produced by the plant has the advantages of high activity, strong hydrogen sensitivity, high stereoselectivity, good copolymer monomer dispersion, dry powder and low fine powder content. The two types of new catalysts have broken the cross-border monopoly of the high-performance catalyst market, will reverse the domestic market situation that mainly relies on imported products, increase the domestic market share of catalyst products, effectively reduce the operating and manufacturing costs of chemical enterprises, and promote the opening of domestic brand products to the international market and the improvement of international market share. The plant has effectively improved the operation efficiency of the production process and reduced the equipment failure rate by optimizing the mother liquor treatment technology, exhaust gas treatment technology and heat medium control technology. For the first time, an organic waste gas and liquid incineration system is adopted to treat organic waste gas and liquid, which fundamentally reduces the generation of NOx. At the same time, the tail gas produced by combustion is treated by a combined process of "quenching + alkali washing + electrostatic precipitation + SCR" to achieve standard discharge of tail gas and clean production. 

Catalyst Tianjin Company helps to strengthen the "new chain" of new materials in Tianjin, promotes the industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading of the catalyst industry, enhances the development level of high-end fine chemicals, improves the green petrochemical industry chain, raises the level of integration of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, promotes the coordinated efforts of industrial clusters, and assists in building a world-class green chemical new materials base in the Nangang Industrial Zone of Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area.