YPC: Cope with Energy Conservation

The petrochemical sector is a high energy consumption sector.
The energy consumption has a decisive role in determining the
competitiveness of products. Yangzi Petrochemical Company Ltd.
(YPC) recently made response to the report on social
responsibilities made by Sinopec Group, released its 2006-2010
energy conservation plan and proposed the target of reducing the
energy consumption per unit of output value by 20% and saving
energy by 884 100 tons of standard coal within 5 years.

Energy conservation and environmental protection to achieve
comprehensive utilization

As early as 1998, YPC conducted the combined emission of 20
process units with torches and put on stream its torch gas
recovery system. Through repeated technical renovations, the
system has classified torch gas according to quality and also
increased the effective utilization rate of torch gas. The safe
and stable operation of the torch gas recovery system has
fundamentally reduced the emission of hazardous residues'
burning and the optical and chemical pollution caused by the
combustion of great quantities of emitted gas and greatly
improved the environment in surrounding areas. The use of the
torch gas recovery system has also produced remarkable economic
benefits and saved great quantities of liquefied petroleum gas
and fuel oil. The company recovered 68 300 tons of torch gas and
increased the revenue by RMB48 million in the first half of 2006.
   YPC has also made efforts in increasing the utilization rate
of oil. The rate of crude oil processing loss was reduced to 0.95%
in 2005. The mutual complementation of the ethylene unit and the
aromatic unit, the two core units in the company, is fully used
and the role of the hydrogenation unit in raw material quality
modification is fully employed. Light oil components in the
refining system is fully used, a rational distribution is made
to ethylene and aromatic raw materials and the production
efficiency of the ethylene unit and the aromatic unit is greatly
increased. The completion of the 8.0 million t/a refining sour
crude oil expansion project has brought new changes to the
production of the company. Besides, intermediate raw materials
have high sulfur content and the gasoline quality has been made
upgrading. There is therefore a high demand for chemical light
oils. In light of these features, the company has constantly
modified to the resource flow and the processing scheme,
optimized oil product basic materials, aromatic raw materials
and ethylene cracking materials and made full use of crude oil.

Water conservation and good management to reduce cost

YPC is close to the Yangtze River and therefore has abundant
water sources. The company has, however, paid great attention
to water conservation and drainage reduction so as to reduce
production cost, protect environment and save resources. The
constant reduction of industrial water per unit of output value
is included in clean production targets. Technical departments
are in charge of formulating and implementing water conservation
plans and measures. The company conducts strict appraisal on
water conservation and the consumption of industrial water and
domestic water in various units are restricted within a certain
scope. An appraisal team has been set up in the company to make
checks and collect water consumption statistics and reports from
various units each month. A general check is conducted each
quarter and an evaluation is held at the end of each year to
promote the work on water conservation and drainage reduction.
The status of the water consumption in each plant and each
workshop is shown by the monthly water consumption chart. The
water consumption in eight plants in the first half of 2006 was
4.08 million tons lower than the same period of the previous
year.

Advanced technology and management method to achieve energy
conservation and consumption reduction

Energy conservation needs advanced process. YPC has invited
well-known American consulting companies to help the company
identify the gap in the resource consumption in its ethylene unit
compared with similar advanced units worldwide and conduct
performance analysis. Optimal process parameters are hence
determined, a series of projects with effect are proposed and
choice production control modes are established by using process
models and other software packages. Efforts have been made to
use the least energy to produce the most products. The
application of these projects has remarkably reduced the energy
consumption. Employees involved in the work have also acquired
an understanding of advanced management concepts and analysis
control methods in the world and enhanced their consciousness
in the construction of conservation-oriented enterprises.
   The renovation process design package for PTA energy
conservation developed made by YPC has also passed the appraisal
by experts. The company bought patent technology from the United
States and started up the PTA unit in 1989. Through repeated
technical renovations and the use of the energy-conservation
renovation process package developed this time, the PTA energy
consumption has reduced from 280 kg standard oil to 150 kg
standard oil per ton of product. A cost of nearly RMB300 million
is reduced a year.