US chemicals producer W. R. Grace (Columbia, Maryland; www.grace.com) has licensed its "Unipol" PP technology and services to the Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group (Yinchuan, Ningxia / China) for a new methanol-to-olefin (MTO) facility in Ningxia. The new line is expected to begin operating in late 2018.

The Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group produces, processes and markets coal and petrochemical products, which include methanol and olefin. Its new PP unit is planned to produce an annual total of 300,000 t of homopolymers, random copolymers and impact copolymers.

This is the 22nd Unipol PP process technology reactor line license in China. With the new license, the total capacity of Unipol PP lines in the country will be nearly 7m t/y. Grace says the all gas-phase Unipol technology is the simplest of PP process technologies, with fewer moving parts and less equipment than alternatives. It adds that the "reliable, stable and predictable" operation leads to lower operating and maintenance costs.

In mid-2017, the company also licensed its "Unipol" PP technology to Hengli Group subsidiary Hengli Petrochemical Refinery (Dalian, Liaoning / China; www.henglipc.com) for its facility in Dalian, which is expected to start operations in 2019 using Grace’s Ziegler-Natta PP-"Shac" catalysts. Hengli Petrochemical’s PP unit is part of its new refinery complex designed to process 20m t /y of crude oil. The facility's dual reactor lines have a planned capacity of 450,000 t/y of homopolymer, random copolymer and impact copolymer resins.