On March 8, 2016, the China International C4 Comprehensive Utilization Summit Forum was held in Shenzhen. Gong Yeling, Manager of the Technology Department at KaiRui Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., and others attended the event and delivered presentations.

　　Over the past two years, domestic C4 deep-processing facilities have been expanding rapidly. Since alkylation units sparked a nationwide boom in 2013, subsequently, isobutane dehydrogenation and n-butane maleic anhydride production have gained widespread popularity in China, driving the C4 deep processing industry chain toward comprehensive development and a multidimensional trend. However, the industry chain’s overly rapid expansion has led to a “supply falling short of demand” for raw materials, making how to address the raw material resource gap a major issue. With the decline in international crude oil prices and the catalyst of fuel quality upgrades, alkylation gasoline now faces both opportunities and challenges. Key issues that remain to be resolved include the future development of imported C4 resources, whether the industrial chain should be extended to address the slump in the market for traditional C4 chemical plants, and how alkylation can overcome technical bottlenecks to seek new profit opportunities.

　The first day of the conference focused primarily on the turbulence in the global economic structure and an analysis of the C4 market, the impact of OPEC’s pricing power on future oil prices, and forecasts for domestic LPG price trends, as well as a detailed data visualization of propane and butane to predict future developments.

　　The report noted that weekly DOE crude oil inventories and monthly OPEC production figures have shown steady growth. The global supply glut, which has been gradually intensifying since 2014, has been exacerbated by the slowdown in global economic growth. In the United States, heating oil consumption has plummeted due to economic recessions in industrial cities; falling oil prices have squeezed profit margins, leading to a decline in crude oil production. Western sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry and fiscal revenues have further restricted capacity expansion. Various indicators suggest that the recovery of oil prices will be a lengthy process, with demand growing at a slow pace and severe inventory buildup. It is projected that over the next three months, the oversupply situation will persist; Iranian crude oil supplies will exert some pressure on the market, and oil prices will rise slowly amid volatility. Over the next three to five years, inventories will be largely absorbed, and oil prices will rebound to a level near the full-cost line.

The second day of the conference focused on research into the C4-based MMA process, a cost comparison analysis of MTBE production processes, and the latest research on solid acid alkylation. The Shaanxi Coal Chemical Technology Engineering Center presented technologies for the production of propylene via catalytic cracking of mixed C4, the production of para-xylene via toluene-methanol alkylation, and the production of butene with co-production of propylene from methanol. The mixed C4 catalytic cracking technology for propylene production uses mixed C4 as feedstock. This technology employs a fluidized-bed reaction process and ZSM-5 molecular sieve catalyst. The feedstock requires no special pretreatment, enables the conversion of certain alkanes, allows for flexible process adjustments, and features catalyst physicochemical properties that meet the requirements of the fluidized-bed process. Meanwhile, the School of Chemistry at Sichuan University highlighted a clean technology for the direct hydroformylation of mixed butene to synthesize valeraldehyde, while Yantai University presented four processes for alkylation oil and alkylation technology: the sulfuric acid method, the hydrofluoric acid method, the solid acid method, and the ionic liquid method. At this conference, KaiRui Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. highlighted its independently developed C4 comprehensive utilization technology. The company has achieved numerous technical breakthroughs in the fields of catalytic light gasoline etherification, MTBE production, MTBE desulfurization, selective hydrogenation to remove butadiene, 1-butene separation, secondary butyl acetate, and comprehensive utilization of C4 by-products from coal chemical processes, with these achievements having been implemented in over 50 industrial-scale units.

　　Among these, the 500,000 metric tons per year light gasoline etherification unit at PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical employs the catalytic distillation light gasoline etherification process technology independently developed by KaiRui Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., utilizing the KC116-BD catalytic distillation element (modular catalyst). Just one month after commissioning, the unit achieved full-load methanol conversion capacity while operating at 70% of the design feed load, generating a direct profit increase of 7.4 million yuan that month. The octane number of the etherified light gasoline increased by 2 units, the olefin content decreased from 62.5% to 27%, and the vapor pressure dropped by 21.4 kPa, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by Guangxi Petrochemical in blending National V-standard gasoline.