Unipol process for PetroChina PP plant

Midland, Michigan – PetroChina GuangXi Petrochemical Co. has selected Dow Chemical’s Unipol polypropylene process technology for a new 200-ktpa PP facility. The plant is being constructed at PetroChina’s complex in GuangXi Province, the People’s Republic of China.

Dow is collaborating on this project with Aker Kvaerner, which will provide the basic engineering design and certain offshore equipment for the new plant, which is expected to come on line in 2008. The PP plant will be the second in China to use the Unipol PP process, said a 9 March Dow statement.

According to Dow, it has already supplied the process design package and Aker Kvaerner is in the final stages of delivering the basic engineering design. Aker Kvaerner, it added, has designed and built numerous Unipol PP lines around the world.

"We are committed to implementing the most advanced technologies and processes in our plants, and that is one of the main reasons we selected the UNIPOL PP process for our new polypropylene plant in GuangXi,” said a statement by the evaluation team for the Guangxi PP project commented.

There are over 40 Unipol PP production lines that are either operational or being constructed worldwide. These lines account for more than 6,500 KTA of global PP production, said Dow.