“Three, two, one, activate.” In warm applause and rumbling salute, two heavy-duty trucks carrying polymerization reactors slowly drove out of Nanjing Tianhua Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. under Tianhua Institute. The two polymerization reactors for polypropylene, designed and manufactured by Tianhua Institute with Lummus’s technology, were delivered to CNOOC Ningbo Daxie Petrochemical.
By employing Lummus’s vapor-phase polypropylene process, two reactors can be arranged flexibly in tandem or parallel to produce multiple polypropylene products simultaneously. The polymerization reactor, the key equipment in the Lummus process, was imported for the project that has been put into operation. CNOOC Daxie Petrochemical is China’s first enterprise to adopt the polymerization reactor designed and manufactured through the Lummus technology.
Tianhua Institute is a well-known enterprise in the R&D, design and manufacturing of chemical equipment. With a wealth of technologies in design & manufacturing, the Institute has offered excellent technical services to main polypropylene producers across China, winning recognition from domestic and international chemical companies. Through many investigations, CNOOC Daxie Petrochemical’s experts believed that Tianhua Institute could meet all the requirements for designing and manufacturing polymerization reactors by its all-around strengths. They finalized that Tianhua Institute can undertake CNOOC’s localization project for polymerization reactors.
To ensure the successful completion of the project, Tianhua Institute jumped into action to establish a project team to develop a detailed design plan according to CNOOC Daxie Petrochemical’s requirements for equipment. It set a higher bar for design and manufacturing in key processed parts of reactors. The Institute focused on design and manufacturing features and challenges and innovatively adopted 3D laser scanning technology to sharpen the precision of butterfly heads for reactors at 0.5mm, which is far below the 1mm required by the patentee. With the three-year efforts of the owner, the patentee, the design institute and Tianhua Institute, Tianhua Institute accomplished the first domestic polymerization reactor for polypropylene using Lummus’s technology.
He Deqiang, deputy general manager of Tianhua Institute and general manager of Nanjing Tianhua, said in his speech that Tianhua Institute, a state-owned enterprise with 60 years of development, has specialized in the research and development of petrochemical equipment. The Institute has been committed to localizing high-end petrochemical equipment, including polypropylene powder heaters, steam evaporators, dryers, vapor-phase reactors, and blending silos. It boasts a host of technologies and strengths in R&D, design and manufacturing of equipment. The project fills the gap in the design and manufacturing of polypropylene reaction equipment in China. Meanwhile, it has enhanced the Institute’s comprehensive capabilities of research, design and manufacturing and core competitiveness.
Mr. Yang Guoyi, director of the Materials Institute of China Institute of Special Equipment Testing and former secretary-general of China National Pressure Vessel Committee, said that the smooth delivery of polypropylene polymerization reactors made with the vapor-phase process had marked the localization of a typical pressure vessel product, which will be recorded in China’s history of manufacturing pressure vessels. It will be of great historical significance amid the reality that the US-China game is intensifying, and the US is gradually escalating its strategic containment and suppression of China. As a responsible state-owned enterprise, it is hoped that CNOOC Daxie Petrochemicals, SEI and Tianhua Institute, who dare to be pioneers in the industry, will continue to work together to boost the localization of large-scale and high-end equipment so that China’s polypropylene production technology can be substantially improved.
“Currently, Tianhua Institute has completed the R&D, design, machining and manufacturing of polymerization reactors while shortening the manufacturing cycle and dramatically reducing procurement costs. To get rid of the dependence on imported products and sharpen the international competitiveness of national enterprises, CNOOC Daxie Petrochemical is the first to adopt the homemade equipment. We firmly believe that, with the full assistance of Tianhua Institute, it will be put into operation successfully.” said Mr. Jia Jia, representative of CNOOC Ningbo Daxie Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
“Going forward, SEI hopes to continue to join hands with CNOOC Daxie Petrochemical, Tianhua Institute and other enterprises to facilitate the localization of high-end equipment and further better China’s polypropylene process and technology as well as engineering equipment technology for petrochemical systems,” said Mr. Yin Qingfeng, deputy chief engineer and director of Equipment Office of Sinopec Engineering Construction Co., Ltd.
Representatives and guests from 15 enterprises witnessed the delivery moment. The enterprises include China Institute of Special Equipment Testing, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lummus Technology, CNOOC Ningbo Daxie Petrochemical, Sinopec Engineering Construction Co., Ltd., China Huanqiu Engineering (Beijing) Co., Ltd., China Tianchen Engineering Co., Ltd., China Hualu Engineering Co., Ltd., Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co., Ltd., China Flexible Packaging Group Co., Ltd., Henan Willing New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., Jinfa Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhiying Engineering Co., Ltd., Shandong Jingbo Holding Group Co., Ltd. and Shandong Yulong Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
A strong country must foster first-class industries; first-class industries must manufacture advanced equipment. Tianhua Institute has shouldered the mission of revitalizing China's petrochemical equipment industry and assumed social responsibility. It has never forgotten the original aspiration but improved itself with an enterprising spirit. The Institute has followed the principle of developing more state-of-the-art technologies and equipment and introducing and independently innovating technologies. Focusing on building the “pillars of a great power”, it has been committed to developing and manufacturing safe, energy-saving and eco-friendly technologies and equipment with independent intellectual property rights. In the future, Tianhua Institute will be integrated into the new development pattern whereby domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. It will continue to improve the international competitiveness of similar equipment, break the long-term monopoly of foreign manufacturers, and reduce the construction cost of equipment so as to contribute its strength to the revitalization of science and technology and national rejuvenation.