China’s Fujian Meide Petrochemical plans to build a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant with a propylene capacity of 660,000 t/y in Fujian City, Fujian / China. UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois / USA; www.uop.com) will provide its C3 “Oleflex” technology for the project, which will meet rising Chinese demand for propylene for plastics production.

UOP, a Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) subsidiary, said the plant is expected to start up in 2014 and will be the world’s largest PDH plant to date. The company will also provide engineering design, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical services for the project.

“With the licensing of our twentieth unit, UOP Oleflex process technology now produces 5.5m t of propylene annually worldwide,” stated Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president for process technology and equipment at UOP. Nine C3 Oleflex units for on-purpose propylene production are already in operation, and the the tenth is scheduled to start up in Russia in 2012.

China’s propylene consumption accounts for more than 15% of worldwide demand and is growing at about 5-6% per year, UOP said.

Fujian Meide Petrochemical is a subsidiary of China Packing Group (Fuzhou City, Fujian).