ExxonMobil Daya Bay R&D Center starts construction

On February 15, ExxonMobil announced that the company's Huizhou Daya Bay R&D Center officially started construction in the Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Park.

The Daya Bay R&D Center is ExxonMobil's second R&D center in China after the Shanghai R&D Center. The new Daya Bay R&D Center will focus on R&D activities in the fields of novel chemistry, process development and process scale-up. The center is ExxonMobil's first comprehensive R&D center equipped with pilot equipment outside the North American headquarters. It integrates product R&D and process development. It is planned to be constructed in two phases, and the first phase is scheduled to be opened in 2025.

"The construction of the Daya Bay R&D Center will further meet the growing market and technology needs in the Asia-Pacific region," said Wan Lifan, chairman of ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co., Ltd., and the R&D center will bring dozens of high-level R&D jobs , to introduce high-level chemical talents for the local area, and further strengthen international technical exchanges and cooperation. ExxonMobil has established a good strategic partnership with Guangdong Province, which will provide strong support for Guangdong to build a world-class green petrochemical industrial cluster.

ExxonMobil stated that the company has safely completed the hoisting of large heavy equipment for the Huizhou ethylene project. At present, the construction of the main factory area of the first phase project is progressing smoothly, and the supporting projects and the main factory area are advancing as planned. The start of the Daya Bay R&D Center is another important milestone since the start of construction in 2020.

The ExxonMobil Huizhou Ethylene Project is the first major petrochemical project wholly-owned by an American company in China, with a total investment of over US$10 billion, and will be constructed in two phases. The first phase of the project will build a 1.6 million tons/year ethylene cracking unit, as well as mid-downstream high-end polyethylene, polypropylene and other production equipment and supporting facilities. The production of various high-end chemical products will help reduce the import of high-performance polymers in the Chinese market rely.

ExxonMobil said the Huizhou project will produce chemicals used in packaging, automotive, industrial and consumer goods, and hygiene and personal care products. The project adopts industry-leading technology to improve energy efficiency, which is in line with the development direction of China's national petrochemical industry and will help reduce the Chinese market's dependence on imports of high-performance polymers.