W.R. Grace & Co. (Columbia, Md.; www.grace.com) was contracted to license its Unipol PP (polypropylene) process technology to Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Hengli Group. The installation will be made at the company’s facility in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, and is expected to begin operations in 2019 using Grace’s leading SHAC Ziegler Natta PP catalysts.
Hengli Petrochemical’s PP unit is part of its new refinery complex designed to process 20 million metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of crude oil. The facility will produce a total of 450,000 m.t./yr of homopolymer, random copolymer, and impact copolymer thermoplastic resins in dual reactor lines. The project is one of 22 Unipol PP process technology reactor line licenses in China.
Hengli Corporation’s Vice Chairman Chen Xinhua said, “Grace’s Unipol PP process and SHAC catalyst system offers us the most advanced PP product capacity available, and provides the most cost-effective technology to rapidly develop our portfolio of products.”
Al Beninati, President of Grace’s Specialty Catalysts business segment, said, “Grace is proud to partner with Hengli Petrochemical and continue our record of service to customers in China. We believe this represents more evidence that our industry-leading process technology and catalysts technologies combine to provide our customers unparalleled flexibility to deliver the resins that are in highest demand.”