Recently, the cumulative caprolactam output of the 600,000 tons/year caprolactam industrial chain relocation and upgrading project at Sinopec Hunan Petrochemical has officially exceeded 1 million tons. The remarkable achievement is strongly empowered by the revolutionary complete set of caprolactam technologies independently developed by Sinopec Research Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP).
Caprolactam is a vital organic chemical raw material, widely applied in textile and apparel, aerospace, automobile manufacturing and other core industries. As a key polymer monomer, it features complex production procedures, high energy consumption and high carbon emissions in traditional production processes, making it a critical breakthrough field for the green and low-carbon transformation of the petrochemical industry.
The original 300,000 tons/year caprolactam production unit of Sinopec Hunan Petrochemical was located less than one kilometer from the Yangtze River. To strictly implement the national strategy of protecting the Yangtze River and eliminating chemical pollution along the river, and safeguard the ecological security of the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake water system, Hunan Petrochemical launched the 600,000 tons/year caprolactam industrial chain relocation and upgrading transformation project.
Aiming to solve the industry bottlenecks that restrict national green low-carbon development and high-quality industrial upgrading, the RIPP caprolactam R&D team, led by Zong Baoning, Chief Expert of Sinopec Group and Director of the National Key Laboratory of Petroleum Molecular Conversion and Reaction Engineering, has spent more than a decade completing the full-process innovation of caprolactam production technology.
The team has developed a series of world-leading proprietary technologies, forming a disruptive complete process technology for caprolactam production from benzene:
Supported by the above revolutionary technologies, Sinopec Hunan Petrochemical has built the world’s largest single-unit and technologically advanced caprolactam production base. The 600,000 tons/year upgrading project achieved one-time successful startup, realizing comprehensive optimization of production efficiency, cost control and environmental performance while doubling the original caprolactam production capacity.
The upgraded project has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in intensive land use, cost reduction and green emission reduction:
Empowered by RIPP’s proprietary caprolactam technologies, the project has formed a powerful industrial cluster effect ofone leading project activating the entire industrial chain. It supports the construction of a 100-billion-yuan caprolactam industrial cluster and drives the high-quality development of downstream industries including synthetic fibers and engineering plastics with a market scale of 500 billion yuan.
In addition, the project brings a substantial GDP increment of 100 billion yuan to the local region, integrating ecological protection, technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and setting a benchmark for the green and high-quality development of the global caprolactam industry.
The milestone 1-million-ton output achievement fully demonstrates Sinopec’s independent R&D strength and green manufacturing capability. It not only optimizes the global caprolactam industrial layout, but also provides a replicable technical solution for the low-carbon transformation of the traditional petrochemical industry worldwide.
