S72402-NANANA-NA-030As the world’s largest energy consumer and producer, China’s energy transition has always been a hot topic discussed by the whole society. The refining and chemical industry, which is closely related to the energy transformation, is not only the energy production industry, but also one of the main industries of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Under the “double carbon” goal, the refining and chemical industry is facing greater constraints and challenges, and is also meeting more transformation opportunities.
Honeywell has a century-long history of technology precipitation and innovation in the refining and chemical industry. Through a series of innovations, Honeywell helps the refining and chemical industry to further improve production efficiency and increase efficiency while achieving carbon emission reduction. Honeywell Energy & Sustainable Technologies’ UOP Zhangjiagang integrated production facility is one of the company’s important strategic centers in China. In line with the development trend of energy transition, the base has grown into one of the important strategic centers for Honeywell to serve customers in the refining and chemical industry in China by gradually combining the advantages of innovative research and development, technical engineering and integrated production.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Zhangjiagang integrated production base, Yu Feng, President of Honeywell China, expressed his views on how the company can help the refining and chemical industry achieve energy transition and sustainable development in the new era.
“East serves East” to create local innovation benchmark
Addressing climate change and strengthening the commitment to sustainable developS72402-NANANA-NA-030ment are the focus of today’s society. The application of sustainable technologies will accelerate the transformation of the green economy, promote the reform of the energy system, and promote the fundamental transformation of social production and consumption patterns. In China, as the “dual carbon” goal has become an important starting point for China to promote high-quality development, energy transformation and the application of low-carbon technologies have become a common trend for all industries to achieve sustainable development.
Adhering to the development concept of “East serves East”, Honeywell helps Chinese refining and chemical enterprises to accurately discover the main sources of carbon emissions, as well as practical emission reduction methods, technologies and improvement plans through a series of innovative technologies and intelligent operation modes, so as to better achieve low-carbon processes and realize multi-dimensional green development on the basis of ensuring economy.
Zhangjiagang Integrated production base is one of the important R&D and engineering service centers of Honeywell UOP in the world, and undertakes the innovative R&D, engineering design, project execution, technical support and service of Honeywell UOP in China. The center introduces advanced refining and chemical core technology, and carries out R&D and innovation on this basis, realizes rapid transformation of results, and enables the innovative development of the refining and chemical industry.
Zhangjiagang is one of Honeywell’s largest investment projects in China and the first catalyst production base of Honeywell Energy & Sustainable Technologies in China. From the construction of the plant in 2014 to the title of “Green Factory” in Jiangsu Province in 2023, Honeywell UOP Zhangjiagang integrated production base, with its long-term sustainable development strategy and investment, actively helps the local petroleum refining and coal chemical industry to achieve low-carbon transformation, and also provides strong support for the local economic transformation and upgradiS72402-NANANA-NA-030ng. It has become a powerful witness of Honeywell’s “East serves East” development strategy in China.
The integrated production base has a number of industry-leading product lines, mainly producing dehydrogenation catalysts, reforming catalysts and methanol to olefin catalysts, which are widely used in petrochemical refining and coal chemical industry. Two of the catalyst production lines won the title of “Provincial Demonstration intelligent workshop”, fully meeting the growing demand for key catalyst and adsorbent products in the domestic market.
In addition, Honeywell recognizes that the application of digital technologies such as intelligence and connectivity is also an effective way to help the refining, petrochemical and chemical industries save energy and reduce carbon emissions. By applying digital technologies to improve processes, increase asset efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Honeywell Connected Plant solutions enable end-to-end optimization of operations and production, helping customers in the refining, petrochemical and chemical industries quickly find more efficient, low-carbon and optimized solutions.
Cutting-edge innovative technologies enable the refining and chemical industry to achieve new quality productivity
Honeywell has targeted solutions for industries that are responsible for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, fully supporting the circular economy and advancing energy and environmental transformation. In the refining and chemical industry, Honeywell assists industry customers to identify the main sources of carbon emissions and feasible emission reduction methods and technologies, and proposes targeted technical solutions for industry emission reduction in raw materials, processes, emissions, and operations. With Honeywell UOP’s process technology, equipment and lifecycle solutions, companies can create more value per drop of oil, per cubic meter of natural gas and per ton of coal.
For a long time, naphtha cracking process has been the main route for the preparation of olefin. However, naphtha cracking process has low yield, more by-products and high carbon emission. Although ethane cracking can improve the yield and reduce carbon emission, ethane as raw material is in short supply. In the face of growing demand for lightweight olefins, Honeywell UOP has introduced a naphtha to ethane/propane (NEP) process that efficiently converts liquid feedstock to ethane and propane, which will further optimize production, reduce CO2 emissions, improve profitability, flexibility and sustainability, and better respond to new needs and challenges in the olefins industry.
In May 2023, Honeywell and Shenghong Petrochemical signed a strategic cooperation memorandum to provide advanced process technologies such as NEP for the refinery and chemical integration project of its Lianyungang Petrochemical industry base, promote the construction of an intelligent, low-carbon and sustainable integrated production system, and help the comprehensive advancement of petrochemical industry upgrading. Shenghong Refining and Chemical integration project adopts innovative green production technology, and several units have set production scale records in China and the world.
