Wison Engineering's olefin separation technology achieves benchmark

During a performance test, the plant maintained stable running at full capacity, with the quality of the ethylene and propylene products meeting the polymer specs.

Wison Engineering, a leading chemical engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) management service and technology provider in China, has passed the performance test for its olefin separationtechnology at a 300 kta methanol-to-olefin (MTO) project. The YangMei Project was undertaken by Wison Engineering for YangMei Hengtong Chemicals Co. Ltd. under an EPC contract. After 10 months of operation, the company reported that the product recovery of ethylene and propylene products has reached the top standard in the industry globally.

During the 72-hour performance test, the plant maintained stable running at full capacity, with the quality of the ethylene and propylene products meeting the polymer specs. The product recovery of ethylene and propylene reached 99.89% and 99.96%, respectively, which was higher than the guaranteed value.

The plant energy consumption also surpassed the guaranteed requirement. This is the highest recovery since the first commercialization of Wison’s olefin separation technology.

The YangMei HengTong 300 kta MTO project is the third operational project to adopt the Wison’s olefin separation technology since it was industrialized. The project also adopted the patented methanol to olefin (MTO) and olefin cracking process (OCP) technology developed by UOP. The successful delivery and operation of the project has not only proven the features of low energy consumption and high recovery of Wison's proprietary technology, but also demonstrated its integrated capabilities on R&D, PDP, FEED, engineering design, procurement, construction and operation services of MTO projects.

Wison's proprietary "pre-cutting + oil absorption" olefin separation technology integrated a pre-cut column to separate C1 and lighter components from most C2 by non-sharp distillation. The overhead of the pre-cut column is sent to the oil absorber, and the absorbent absorbs C2 and heavier components to separate C1 from C2 completely.

The absorbent at the exit of the oil absorber bottom is sent to the top of pre-cut column for regeneration. By adopting a proprietary "falling-film heat exchanger," the oil absorber condenser can transfer heat and mass simultaneously, so ethylene recovery can be improved while energy consumption is reduced.