Guangxi Petrochemical: Successful Trial Operation of 400,000 Tons/Year Full-Density Polyethylene Plant

On August 19th, the core unit of the full-density polyethylene plant at Guangxi Petrochemical successfully completed load testing, laying a solid foundation for subsequent production.

The circulating compressor set is the core equipment of the 400,000-ton/year full-density polyethylene unit with a fluidized bed process, adopting the UNIPOL gas-phase fluidized bed polyethylene production process from the American company UNIVATION. It mainly provides circulating power for the reactor. Since the design concepts, logic, and interlock settings are being encountered for the first time, there is no existing installation and commissioning experience to reference. Facing this new challenge, technicians engaged in deep communication with the manufacturers and patent holders throughout the entire process from design technical negotiations to design review meetings. They assimilated and modified the manufacturer's unit settings, logic settings, and parameter settings based on the characteristics of the unit's process and the control requirements of the reaction system. During the unit commissioning, some parameters were adjusted according to test data to meticulously and with high standards complete tasks such as equipment installation positioning, unit alignment, and unit parameter setting. During the startup of the unit, specialists from the Chemical Division II, maintenance team, and utility engineering department closely collaborated, while management personnel from the mobile equipment department and maintenance support department provided frontline command, offering strong support for the smooth startup of the unit.

At present, within the three major core units of the full-density polyethylene plant, the load test of the off-gas compressor and the circulating gas compressor has been successfully completed, entering the stage of comprehensive high-pressure purging and replacement; the extrusion granulation unit has successfully completed the kneader material flushing and start-up valve pulling test, and has entered the material-loaded trial operation stage, steadily progressing towards the commissioning plan of the plant.