SPC "Hu IV" Oil Drives Green Expo
The afternoon of October 13 saw the 1st batch of 2,300-ton SPC "Hu IV" Gasoline flow into the petroleum product market in Shanghai through the Jinshan-Minhang Product Oil Pipeline for the "Green Expo", after the staff of SPC's Storage and Transportation Division opened the valve.
The "Hu IV" Gasoline, a near equivalent to the "Euro IV" counterpart, was formulated by SPC thanks to the Expo-oriented alteration equipment project of the selective hydrodesulphurization technology for FCC gasoline (put into production during the National Day).
The alteration equipment project, with more than RMB65 million invested in it, boasts the Generation-II Selective Hydrodesulphurization Technology (RSDS-II) for FCC gasoline. With the proprietary intellectual property for the world's state-of-the-art technology, SPC is due to meet the "Hu IV" Standard for its gasoline once the project comes on stream.
The RSDS, one of the important technologies in producing low-sulfur gasoline, was erected as a "Ten-dragon" Brainstorm Project of Sinopec Corp. In early 2001, upon signing agreement on cooperation in technologies with the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP), SPC conducted the industrial application of the RSDS based on its existing equipment and crucial technical alteration for technology upgrade of China's gasoline product.
In May 2001, the RSDS technology passed the verification of Sinopec. In June 2003, SPC joint hands with the RIPP to make the RSDS industrial trial apparatus which went into smooth operation once and for all. In October 2004, the last measurement and debugging were finished. As a result, catalyst stability, desulfurization degree, octane loss and other indices reached or even exceeded the requirements for the "Ten-dragon" Brainstorm.
Afterwards, SPC and the RIPP optimized the RSDS into the Generation-II selective hydrodesulphurization technology (RSDS-II) for FCC gasoline. Compared with the Generation-I technology, the optimized RSDS-II, conducive to better catalyst, higher desulfurization degree and minimum octane loss, could completely satisfy the production of "Hu IV" Gasoline.
The "Hu IV" Gasoline differs from the current "State II" gasoline for vehicles in China for its much lower contents of sulfur (down 90%), benzene, manganese and olefin, which will be conducive to emission reduction of major pollutants from vehicles, energy saving for the traffic and air quality improvement.
Besides, SPC turns out 450,000 tons of "Hu IV" diesel oil a year. The first batch of "Hu IV" diesel oil will be marketed in Shanghai on October 15. SPC also plans to expand its annual productivity to about 3.35 million tons in the first half of 2010 by technology optimization and catalyst upgrading for the "Hu IV" diesel oil.
