The Role of Petrochemical Products

Petrochemicals mainly refer to petrol, kerosene, diesel oil, heavy oil, and natural gas produced by petroleum refining and are currently the main suppliers of major energy sources. In 1995, China produced 80 million tons of fuel oil. At present, the world’s oil and natural gas consumption accounts for about 60% of the total energy consumption; China’s consumption of coal is less than 20% due to its large use of coal. The energy provided by petrochemicals is mainly used as fuel for automobiles, tractors, aircraft, ships, and boilers, and is used in small quantities as a civilian fuel. Energy is a factor that restricts the development of China’s national economy. Petrochemicals consume about 8.5% of total energy and should continue to reduce energy consumption.

3.The construction and development of the petrochemical industry cannot be separated from the support of all walks of life.Domestic and foreign petrochemical companies are all focused on building a number of production facilities to form a large petrochemical industrial zone. In the region, the refinery is a “tap” that provides cracking materials for petrochemical plants, such as light oil and diesel, and produces petrochemical products; cracking plants produce basic petrochemical feedstocks such as ethylene, propylene, benzene, xylene, etc.; Raw materials are mainly series production equipments for producing synthetic materials and organic raw materials, and their products and raw materials have a certain ratio. If it is required to produce 300,000 tons of ethylene per year, roughly calculated, it will need to crack 1.2 million tons of raw materials, corresponding to refinery processing capacity of about 2.5 million tons, and it can support the production of synthetic materials and basic organic materials 80 to 900,000 tons. It can thus be seen that the construction of a petrochemical industrial park requires a large amount of funds and the site selection is appropriate. Not only must it ensure the transportation of raw materials and products, but it must also have sufficient electricity, water supply and other ancillary infrastructure facilities. Each production facility requires a large number of standard, qualitative machinery, equipment, instruments, piping, and non-specific equipment. The manufacture of machinery and equipment involves many varieties of materials and requirements are different. Some key equipments exceed 50 meters at high speed and weigh hundreds of tons each; some require heat resistance at 1000 degrees Celsius, and some require resistance to cold at -150 degrees Celsius. Some key equipment needs to be purchased in the international market. All of these require the support of metallurgical, electric power, machinery, instrumentation, construction, and environmental protection industries. The petrochemical industry is a technology-intensive industry. The determination of production methods and production processes, selection of key equipment, selection, and manufacturing of a range of technologies require proprietary or unique technical standards, such as the introduction of foreign patents or technical fees. Therefore, only the basic disciplines, especially organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, catalysis, chemical engineering, electronic computers, automation, etc., should be strengthened, and the training of relevant professional and technical personnel should be strengthened so that they can master and adopt advanced scientific research results. With related engineering technologies, the petrochemical industry may continue to develop and reach new heights.