Successful Startup of the Largest Continuous Reforming Plant in Asia

On June 23, 2008, the 2,200 kt/a continuous reforming plant (whose capacity is largest in Asia) of the CNPC Dalian Petrochemical Company received successful commissioning and startup. The plant is one of the major plants of the revamping & expansion project undertaken by Wison Engineering in PMC mode. For Dalian Petrochemical, which aims to have a 20,500 kilo tons of crude oil processing capacity within 2008, the startup of the plant means a big step forward.
 

The PMC project, which is to revamp and expand Dalian Petrochemical's capacity of processing sulfur-bearing crude oil imported from Russia, involves six major plants. They are:
 

6 mt/a Diesel oil Hydrogenation Unit;
2.2 mt/a Continuous Reforming Unit;
3.6 mt/a Hydrocracking Unit;
20×104 Nm3/h Hydrogen Production Unit;
3 mt/a Residue Hydrodesulfurization Unit;
270 kt/a Sulfur Recovery Unit.
 

The project piling work started in May, 2006. The six plants were handed over before May 30, 2008, and production work is expected to start within this year. Dalian Petrochemical is now able to process almost all kinds of crude oil, including the sulfur-bearing crude oil.
 

Construction of the continuous reforming plant started in June, 2006, with a total investment of 1.173 billion yuan. The plant includes: 2.2 mt/a continuous reforming unit, 1 mt/a aromatic extraction unit, 16,000 Nm3/h PSA unit and facilities such as substations. The plant, using the naphtha and catalytic heavy oil produced by the hydrocracking plant, produces high octane number gasoline component, benzene, xylene and hydrogen. The gasoline components produced contains less than 0.5 PPM of sulfur, which greatly excels the Euro IV Standard (50 PPM sulfur). The plant is able to produce 11,000 Nm3/h of hydrogen, which can be used by the diesel oil hydrogenation plant and the residue hydrodesulfurization plant.