Hengyi selects Honeywell tech for Brunei petchem complex

China’s Hengyi Industries will use advanced reforming and aromatics technologies from Honeywell UOP at its integrated petrochemical complex in Pulau Muara Besar, Brunei. The facility will process 200,000 barrels per day.

UOP will provide a range of technology licenses, engineering design, key equipment and catalysts and adsorbents, operator training, and technical services for start-up and continuing operations.

“The increased demand for paraxylene in Asia has led companies to invest in technologies for the conversion of crude oil to petrochemicals on a larger scale,” said Bryan Glover, Vice President/General Manager of the UOP Process Technologies business. “Hengyi Industries selected UOP process technology to further expand its aromatics plant and meet the growing demand for paraxylene in the region.”

The Brunei complex will include an aromatics block consisting of CCR Platforming technology to convert naphtha into aromatics, a Light Desorbent Parex  aromatics complex to recover high-purity paraxylene from mixed xylenes using a more energy-efficient process. The LD Parex complex will produce up to 2.3 million tonnes of high-purity paraxylene, the primary component of many plastic resins, films and fibres.

The complex also will include a UOP naphtha hydrotreating unit, an Olefin Removal Process unit (ORP), Sulfolane technology for aromatics extraction, Isomar technology to convert xylene isomers into more valuable paraxylene, and Tatoray technology to convert toluene and heavier aromatics into mixed xylenes and high-purity benzene to more than double the yield of paraxylene from the naphtha feedstock.

In addition, UOP is providing a second Sulfolane unit for the extraction of pygas, and a VGO Unicracking unit and Diesel Unicrackin unit targeting maximum naphtha production.

When the project is completed, Hengyi Industries will have capacity to produce more 3.8 million tonnes/year of paraxylene.

Honeywell UOP is the world’s leading licensor of process technology to produce aromatics. As of 2020, Honeywell licensed more than 121 complexes and more than 500 individual process units for production of aromatics, including more than 380 CCR Platforming process units, 150 Sulfolane units, 100 Isomar units, 77 Tatoray units, and 121 Parex units worldwide.

Hengyi Industries, a subsidiary of Hengyi Petrochemical Ltd., is a joint petrochemical venture between China and Brunei. The company is a major global supplier of polyester resins and petrochemicals.