Dow Chemical (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com) has scored another coup with its “Unipol” technology in China – see Plasteurope.com of 15.09.2011. The US group has clinched a deal with Qinghai Salt Lake Industry (Xining, Qinhghai / China; www.qhsalt.com.cn) to license the process for a new 160,000 t/y PP production plant at Xining in central China’s Qinghai province, set for start up in the second half of 2013. According to Dow, Quinghai Salt Lake is the eighth licensee of the Unipol PP process in China.

The relatively small polypropylene unit is to form part of an integrated coal-based magnesium metal complex planned by the potassium specialist. As part of the project, coal gasification will be used to generate ethylene and propylene as feedstock for the PP unit. The Chinese company also intends to leverage its salt and coal resources to build a 300,000 t/y PVC plant at its Xining site.

The two contracts for Dow and recent awards made to other North American and European technology licensors appear to underscore that China’s coal-to-olefins strategy is moving into high gear. Recently, Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group (Yinchuan, Ningxia / China; www.baofengenergy.com/index.asp) selected the Ineos (Lyndhurst / UK; www.ineos.com) “Innovene” process for its new 300,000 t/y PP plant at Ningxia / China, earmarked for start-up in 2015 – see Plasteurope.com of 09.09.2011. Just days earlier, Ineos announced that it had signed a licensing agreement with Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Yanan Energy and Chemical, a subsidiary of Yanchang Petroleum (Yanan, Shaanxi; http://english.sxycpc.com), for a 300,000 t/y PP plant to start up in 2014 – see Plasteurope.com of 05.09.2011. The UK group is already supplying its processes for a 300,000 t/y Innovene PP plant and a 300,000 t/y Innovene S PE plant being built by another Yanchang Petroleum subsidiary, Yulin Energy and Chemical. Both are planned to go on stream in 2013.

In another project, Honeywell subsidiary UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois / USA; www.uop.com) is licensing its C3 “Oleflex” process to China’s Fujian Meide Petrochemical for a 660,000 t/y propane dehydrogenation plant that will produce propylene for PP production – see Plasteurope.com of 13.09.2011.