What is being called the world’s largest catalytic dehydrogenation plant has gone onstream in China’s Liaoning Province at the production site of Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian), part of the Hengli group (Wujiang, Jiangsu / China; www.hengli.com). The new single-train propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit uses the “Catofin” catalyst technology and heat generating material (HGM) of Swiss speciality chemicals producer Clariant (Muttenz; www.clariant.com), licensed through the Lummus Technology division of US engineering contractor McDermott (Houston, Texas; www.mcdermott.com). Along with technology, McDermott also provided process design, training and technical support for the project.

The PDH unit, one of seven set to start up in China in 2019 – see Plasteurope.com of 23.05.2019 – has capacity to process 500,000 t/y of propane and 800,000 t/y of isobutene for production of propylene and isobutylene. Altogether, China’s polypropylene capacity is projected to increase by more than 7.5m t/y from 2019 to 2020, significantly adding to the country’s current capability of more than 23m t/y. At Hengli Petrochemical alone, Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net) shows a number of petrochemicals and plastics plants due to start up by the end of 2020. This includes facilities for about 1m t/y of PP and 400,000 t/y of polyethylene.