Jiangsu Petrochemical Company Begins Operating MTO Plant In China

China’s Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Company has announced that its methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant installed by Honeywell has become fully operational. The new plant converts methanol from domestic coal into olefins and is capable of producing 833,000-mt of olefins per annum.

According to Mr. John Gugel, Honeywell UOP’s Process Technology and Equipment business VP & GM, the Jiangsu Sailboat unit is by far the largest single-train MTO unit in the world.

The Sailboat production facility in Lianyungang City in China’s Jiangsu Province will produce propylene for the production of acrylonitrile. The factory will also produce ethylene for the production of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, in addition to C4 olefins for the production of butadiene.

Honeywell stated that its advanced MTO process produces the maximum amount of light olefins at the lowest cost of production and the lowest catalyst consumption. Additionally, the new MTO technology integrates the UOP/Hydro MTO process and the Total/UOP Olefin cracking process to boost yields and feedstock efficiency.

Leveraging UOP’s proprietary catalysts technology, the process transforms methanol from coal and natural gas into ethylene and propylene.