The Main Direction of PDH to Propylene Capacity Expansion? The New Production Capacity Will Exceed 10 Million Tons in The Next Two Years!

In recent years, the domestic propylene industry has developed rapidly. In 2019, the new domestic propylene production capacity reached 3.66 Mt, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%. Among the new production capacity, the proportion of traditional petrochemical routes has dropped significantly, and the production capacity of emerging processes has grown rapidly, accounting for 81.15% of the new production capacity.

In 2021, under the severe influence of policies and external markets, China's total propylene production capacity will be 51.94 million tons/year, the output will be about 41.2 million tons/year, and the annual industry average operating rate will be about 79%. According to the operating rate of the industry, the propylene industry as a whole is in a state of low operating load, and due to the different propylene production methods, the operating rate of the industry varies greatly. Among them, the operating rate of methanol to propylene is the lowest, followed by the operating rate of by-product propylene, and the operating rate of naphtha cracking and PDH industries is relatively good.

At present, the development trend of diversification and lightening of ethylene raw materials in the world is obvious. It will become a trend to use light hydrocarbons such as ethane to produce ethylene. It will become the main direction of propylene capacity expansion in the future.

The PDH process has the advantages of single raw material, short process, high propylene yield, low investment cost and high economy. How to have long-term, stable and relatively cheap propane resources and sufficient propane storage facilities in the future will become the key to the development of PDH.

Since January 2022, the investment and construction of the domestic PDH industry has maintained a high degree of prosperity. Juzhengyuan, Wanhua Chemical, Haiquan Chemical, Yongrong New Materials and other companies have promoted the progress of PDH projects. At the same time, in 2022, Qixiang Tengda PDH The plant was put into production, and the Lihuayi PDH plant started construction, etc.