The large-sized extrusion granulation unit is the only major equipment that has not been domesticated in China's petrochemical industry. China began to carry out research and development on this item from the "Seventh Five-Year" period, but there has been no major breakthrough. After careful analysis of the equipment level of China's equipment manufacturing industry, the research results of the mixing extrusion granulation theory, and the engineering development and design capabilities of large-scale extrusion granulation units, Sinopec Group Corporation has made extremely challenging risk decisions and decided to Yanshan Petrochemical, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Tianhua Design Institute and Dalian Rubber & Plastics Co., Ltd. combined to form a development team, relying on Yanshan Petrochemical's polypropylene granulation system transformation project, and an annual output of 200,000 tons of polypropylene extrusion granulation unit Tackle the problem. The project was started in January 2007. So far, all technical research and development work has been fully completed. It is expected that the company will complete the production, installation and commissioning work in March next year at the crucial stage of the processing and trial production of the company.
According to Professor Cao Xianghong, ethylene is a core product of the petrochemical industry, but for a long time China’s large-scale ethylene production equipment has all depended on imports. Its core technology is in the hands of three manufacturers such as Japan and Germany, forming a technology and price monopoly. The price of ethylene extrusion granulator units has doubled in the past five years. The price of a 300,000-ton extrusion granulator has increased from more than US$5 million in 2002 to nearly US$10 million, and the delivery date has been extended from 10 to 12 months to 18 to 24 months. All of these have seriously affected the investment control and construction progress of petrochemical engineering projects, and have constrained the development of China's petrochemical industry.
Large-scale extrusion granulator research project started
On July 18th, the opening ceremony of the national “Eleventh Five-Year†major technological equipment research project—a large-scale extrusion granulation unit was held in Dalian Rubber Plastic Machinery Co., Ltd. Cao Xianghong, chief engineer of the China Petrochemical Corporation and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Liu Yan, assistant to the mayor of Dalian and director of the Economic Commission attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The comprehensive localization of large-scale extrusion granulation units not only has a major impact on large-scale ethylene projects in China, but also can enhance the technological level of Dalian's equipment manufacturing industry.