Sinopec to upgrade two China petrochemical plants with Honeywell automation

Honeywell was selected by the Sinopec Maoming Company for business management and automation technology aimed at rejuvenating and improving operational performance at aging petrochemical plants in Guangdong Province, China, officials said on Friday.

Honeywell's Profit Suite R400 process optimization software will be deployed at two of Maoming Company's ethylene-cracking facilities, helping to improve plant performance by increasing energy efficiency, improving flexibility of its operations, and maximizing the plants' yield of high-value products. 

The plants have been in operation for more than 50 years and currently produce 1 million tpy of petrochemicals.

"Although new petrochemical plants are being built, globally the petrochemical industry is a mature industry, with many plants having been in operation for decades," said Aldous Wong, vice president and general manager for Honeywell Process Solutions in China. 

"Honeywell's process optimization solutions can breathe new life into these aging plants, boosting profitability by increasing throughput and yields, improving product quality, and reducing costs," he added.

Ethylene is an important building block for petrochemicals and is primarily used in the manufacture of polyethylene, which, in turn, goes into a wide range of products, such as packaging, detergents, synthetic lubricants and synthetic rubber. In China, about 70% of its polyethylene is used in product packaging.

"We want to establish this project as a benchmark for other similar facilities within the Sinopec Group," said He Lijian, deputy chief engineer for Sinopec Maoming Company. "Using this Honeywell solution, Maoming Company is expecting an increase in production that would improve our profitability by more than $6 million per year. Honeywell's experience in advanced process control and support capabilities for a number of industrial projects in China helped us to decide to choose them as one of our trusted vendors."

Profit Suite R400 is the most comprehensive release of Honeywell's Advanced Process Control (APC) and Optimization technology portfolio, with the ability to integrate with many different distributed control systems (DCS) by multiple manufacturers, as well as legacy systems.