China's styrene complete set of large-scale technology has been a major breakthrough!

Break the monopoly and ease the shortage of resources

On July 10, 2019, the "Industrial Application of 300000 Tons/Year Styrene Complete Technology" project completed by Changzhou Ruihua Chemical Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. passed the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements organized by the China Private Science and Technology Promotion Association in Beijing. The experts at the meeting agreed that the complete set of technology has independent intellectual property rights, leading technical level, and significant economic and social benefits.

The picture shows the "industrial application of 300000 tons/year styrene complete sets of technology" scientific and technological achievements evaluation meeting site.

After review, the expert group believes that the main innovation and characteristics of the project technology are the development of low energy consumption liquid phase alkylation ethylbenzene synthesis and high vacuum, low water ratio ethylbenzene adiabatic dehydrogenation reaction process, the design of a unique ethylbenzene dehydrogenation high temperature system treatment scheme, the formation of 300000 tons/year styrene complete set of new technology; Dehydrogenation reactor, ethylbenzene superheater and intermediate heat exchanger and other key equipment were designed to increase styrene production capacity by 10%, the operation period of the equipment was prolonged and the operation of the device was stable. The device achieves a material consumption of 1.0555t (benzene + ethylene)/t styrene and an energy consumption of 208.9kg standard oil/t styrene, which is 21% lower than the advanced index GB32053-2015 by the national standard. According to the inspection by Changzhou Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute, the purity of styrene reached 99.9, which is better than the national standard GB/T3915-2011 of 99.8.

By Xinyang Technology Group Co., Ltd. and other users to use, reflect good. Experts suggest that further increase the promotion of complete sets of technology to meet market demand.

According to Xu Zhigang, chairman of Changzhou Ruihua Chemical Industry, the industrial application of 300000 tons/year styrene complete set technology was independently developed by the company. The first set with independent intellectual property rights was successfully driven in May 2016 and has achieved excellent and stable operation for more than three consecutive years, with excellent performance indicators. At present, the National Development and Reform Commission's industrial catalog requires an annual output of 200000 tons, with an international average capacity of 260000 tons/year. China's existing operation of the use of domestic technology styrene plant is 250000 tons/year, 300000 tons/year technology successfully applied, breaking the monopoly, marking a major breakthrough in China's domestic styrene complete set of technology, for China's super-large styrene project development has laid a solid foundation.

At present, the total energy consumption of domestic styrene plant is generally about 280kg standard oil/t styrene, and the total material consumption is generally 1.075t (styrene)/t styrene. Due to the reduction of energy consumption and material consumption, the complete set of technology can save about 80 million RMB per year. In order to alleviate the shortage of styrene resources in my country, after the success of the 300000-ton/year technology project, the company has signed and gradually implemented 400000-ton/year, 500000-ton/year, and 600000-ton/year complete technology projects. The 800000-ton/year project will be launched in the near future, and strive to build a world-class super-large complete set of styrene technology to meet market demand with advanced technology.

It is understood that in recent years, with the progress of science and technology, the rapid development of all walks of life, the demand for polystyrene resin is increasing, resulting in a sharp increase in the demand for styrene. Although the production capacity and output of styrene in China have made great progress, the market gap is large due to the rapid development of styrene downstream products. In the past 10 years, the import volume of styrene monomer in China has been maintained at the scale of 3.5 million tons/year. Domestic styrene products still can not meet the market demand, and the gap has not been alleviated. In addition, in addition to the import of styrene monomer, China also needs to import a large number of polystyrene, ABS and styrene butadiene rubber and latex and other styrene downstream products every year, such as all converted into styrene, China's styrene supply and demand contradiction is still very large.

Xu Zhigang said that before the successful development of the complete set of technology, all styrene plants with an annual output of 300000 tons/year and above in China were constructed by foreign styrene process technology, and foreign technology was in a monopoly position. Moreover, styrene plants constructed by domestic technology, especially the early construction of styrene plants, had serious problems of high energy consumption and poor economic benefits, Therefore, it is of great significance to develop advanced large-scale planned styrene technology.

The picture shows the exterior of the 300000-ton styrene complete technical project.

In order to maintain the continuity of styrene technology research and development and seek the technological progress of large-scale unit in this field, Ruihua Company proposed to develop advanced large-scale styrene complete sets of technology as the company's long-term research task. During the research and development process, the problems of cold storage and vaporization and supply of ethylene were overcome. Under the condition of low benzene-to-olefin ratio, the selectivity of ethylbenzene was improved, the byproduct of butylbenzene was avoided and the amount of polybenzene residue was reduced, reduce the energy consumption of the alkylation reaction part, solve the low temperature heat recovery and utilization, high vacuum reaction, high temperature system stability and other technical difficulties and process bottleneck problems. On the basis of domestic styrene technology, after ten years of continuous technical research, the industrial application of 300000 tons/year styrene complete set of technology has been successfully developed, and the main technical indicators have all met the design requirements.

Xu Zhigang said that the industrial application prospects of 300000 tons/year styrene complete sets of technology are broad, especially the shortage of styrene resources in Southeast Asia, and the promotion of styrene complete sets of technology abroad also has broad prospects.

At the review meeting, experts took photos with relevant responsible persons of organizational units and enterprises

The award has been published in China Chemical News