24-01-2018

Honeywell UOP inaugurates new production line for Coal-To-Chemicals catalysts in China

Honeywell today announced the beginning of production in China of proprietary Honeywell UOP catalysts that are used to convert coal into plastics, helping China to meet its growing demand. Honeywell also inaugurated a new research and development and engineering center to support business development and to meet growing engineering and technical service needs throughout Asia.

The new catalyst production line, located in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu Province, manufactures state-of-the-art catalysts used in Honeywell UOP’s Advanced Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process technology, which converts methanol from coal and natural gas into the olefins that are used to make plastic resins and fibers. The heart of the MTO process is a proprietary catalyst that facilitates the conversion of methanol into olefins.

“MTO technology enables countries such as China to make plastics from their own vast coal resources rather than from imported petroleum,” said Rebecca Liebert, president and CEO of Honeywell UOP. “With the opening of this new production line we now can manufacture the catalysts used in the MTO process locally, using raw materials from China.”

Honeywell’s facility in Zhangjiagang opened in 2015. In addition to MTO catalysts, it also produces catalysts used in Honeywell UOP’s Oleflex™ process, which converts propane into propylene, and in continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) Platforming™, which is used to produce high-octane gasoline.

“There’s nothing more precious today than clean water, and because we share this commitment to environmental stewardship with the government, we worked with the government to ensure we had the proper infrastructure to achieve zero-discharge of wastewater,” Liebert added. “We’re proud to welcome visitors here to see what we have accomplished, and to advise them how they can learn from our environmental efforts.”

While global demand for ethylene and propylene is growing by 4 to 5 percent per year, China is expected to invest more than $100 billion in coal-to-chemicals technology by 2020. This would reduce China’s dependence on imported oil for the manufacture of plastics used to make millions of different products.

Honeywell also celebrated the opening of its new engineering center, also located in Zhangjiagang. This center will support Honeywell UOP’s technology delivery, project commissioning, ongoing technical support and revamp projects. In addition, the center will provide greater service capabilities, including new software-enabled services that improve the efficiency of refineries and petrochemical plants.