28-03-2013

SVW methanol plant acceptance announced

Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Works, part of China Petrochemical International Limited and Johsnon Matthey announce the acceptance of a Methanol Plant in P.R. China. China Petrochemical International Limited (Sinopec International), Sinopec Sichuan Vinylon Works (SVW) and Johnson Matthey, are pleased to announce the acceptance of a 771,000 MT/Y Methanol plant located in Changshou Chemical Garden, Chongqing, P.R. China.
 
Johnson Matthey have supplied the catalysts and proprietary equipment as well as the technology licence through its Davy Process Technology (Davy) business.  The Plant is the first Davy facility to utilise acetylene off-gas as a feedstock to produce refined methanol which is used in downstream facilities within SVW’s works in the production of acetic acid.  The plant also includes a purge loop with an oxygen blown Autothermal Reformer (ATR) to increase the plant efficiency and capacity.
 
The success of this plant is due to the excellent team work and co-operation between Johnson Matthey/ Davy who undertook the process design, and were the technology licensor and catalyst and proprietary equipment supplier, SVW as the plant operator and Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co. Ltd. who performed the detail engineering.
 
The plant is one of fourteen that Johnson Matthey have licensed globally over the past five years through Davy, with a combined annual capacity of more than 20 million tons of new methanol capacity.  The advanced methanol synthesis technology that is used by the plant has been chosen from an extensive portfolio of syngas and methanol synthesis processes developed and marketed by Johnson Matthey for use in gas and coal to chemical plants.
 
Mr Antoine Bordet, Managing Director of Davy, said "We are delighted that SVW’s methanol plant has reached this major milestone and is producing on-spec high quality methanol at the design capacity.  This demonstrates the benefit of the excellent co-operation which exists between all the parties involved in the project. We wish Sinopec International and SVW every success in the on-going operation of the plant and look forward to further cementing our long term relationships in future collaboration projects."

For more information, please visit www.jmcatalysts.com/refineries.