SPC makes a major breakthrough in localization of PTA technology. Recently, the 0.8-million-ton/year process package and packaged technology developed by the Company has gone through technical acceptance, reaching the world's advanced level. Thus, SPC is the first domestic company that breaks the long-term monopoly of some foreign companies over PTA technology for its success in the development of the packaged technology with independent intellectual property rights enjoyed by Sinopec.
SPC has spent more than 20 years on PTA production. Since 1984 when the Company introduced a whole set of 225,000-ton/year PTA plant from Japan, it has spared no effort in innovation on the basis of digesting introduced technology, so as to build a large-scale localized PTA packaged technology with independent intellectual property rights. Early in 1993, the Company's Polyester Division began to explore the capability expansion of the introduced plant. In 2001, the Division completed the technical innovation by lifting the annual output from 0.225 million tons to 0.3 million tons; in October 2004, another expansion from 0.3-million-ton/year to 0.4-million-ton/year was finished with the world-class level of major material consumption and comprehensive energy consumption. During this period, SPC combined innovation with its 20-year-plus PTA production experience and has realized a remarkable "hop skip and jump" in development of PTA technology: stage I, the 0.3-million-ton/year PTA technology; stage II, the 0.4-million-ton/year independent PTA technology; stage III, the localized 0.8-million-ton/year PTA plant process package and packaged technology.
As the "Ten Dragons" science project of Sinopec, SPC's 0.8-million-ton/year PTA packaged technology development has long been the core project backed by Sinopec. From 2002 on, SPC developed 0.8-million-ton/year PTA plant process package and packaged technology synchronously when it developed 0.4-million-ton/year software package. Under the leadership of Sinopec's R & D Department, SPC's Polyester Division cooperated with Shanghai Engineering Company of Sinopec to carry out system research and process flow optimization to a series of major unit processes including oxidation reactor under joint research with colleges and universities including East China University of Science and Technology. It's learned that through the project development, SPC has formed its 15 proprietary technologies and 5 applied patent technologies, three of which have been authorized.
The development and application of localized packaged technology of 0.8-million-ton/year PTA plant to the construction of advanced world-scale PTA equipment will help to enhance Sinopec's technology situation in polyester raw-material field, break the technology monopoly of big foreign companies over the field and thoroughly end China's dependence on imported PTA technology. Meanwhile, successful development of the localized packaged technology will also drive localization of PTA equipments, which will effectively reduce manufacturing cost of overall polyester chain and enhance the chain's competitiveness.
PTA (Pure Terephthalic Acid) is an important chemical raw material mainly used for manufacturing polyester. Polyester can be used to manufacture fibre products for wide usage in such fields as garments, tyre cord fabric, papermaking, architecture, road and coated fabric. It also can be used for manufacturing films and polyester bottles for product packages, beverage bottles, films, tapes and discs. It is widely used in engineering plastics for automobile, home appliance, ordinary and advanced components of daily necessities, plastic cases, too.
