On September 15, 2026, the Tarim 1.2 million ton per year Phase II ethylene project intelligent chemical plant of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company completed comprehensive stability testing and special approval, and was officially put into operation. 40 sets of core business systems have been implemented in the intelligent factory, effectively solving the pain points of experiential and extensive management in the traditional refining industry, and building a new production management model that is refined, intelligent, and standardized. From the daily alarm volume of over 360000 during the driving phase to over 2000, to the reduction of equipment fault location time from 2 to 3 hours to 5 minutes, this million ton ethylene plant is reshaping its production logic with digitization.

Intelligent control significantly reduces losses

The intelligent factory relies on the full process mechanism model of the ethylene plant and the InPlant AIPC advanced intelligent control system to upgrade the plant from basic automation to intelligent optimization control. 908 control circuit parameter presets and 493 circuit tuning optimizations were completed before and after driving. Based on the expert knowledge base built on the alarm unified monitoring and analysis platform, the daily average number of alarms during the start-up phase of the device has decreased from over 360000 to more than 2000, a decrease of over 99%. The industry's first mechanism combined with AI dual drive process optimization mode can intelligently deduce multi scenario production conditions, independently search for optimization parameters, effectively reduce the cost of driving trial and error, compress the production cycle, and stabilize product quality.

Equipment maintenance reduces costs and improves efficiency

The intelligent factory is equipped with an online monitoring system for lubricating oil in the three machine drive ethylene unit, which monitors 28 core equipment operation indicators 24/7 and accurately predicts potential faults. 1308 explosion-proof wireless sensors are deployed throughout the factory, covering 386 nuclear heart devices and achieving a 100% closed-loop response rate for fault alarms. The duration of equipment fault location has been compressed from 2 to 3 hours to 5 minutes, reducing daily inspection workload by 70%. At the level of security control, relying on 21 types of AI hazard identification algorithms and over 2000 monitoring devices, we achieve 24/7 proactive risk warning in the factory area. At the level of low-carbon development, we have completed energy consumption modeling for 16 sets of main equipment, improved energy analysis efficiency by 75%, and achieved an online business rate of 80%. Keywords: New Energy News Network, Ethylene Engineering, Intelligence

Multiple industry firsts fill gaps

The intelligent factory has pioneered multiple industry achievements: China Petroleum's self-developed Kunlun MES system has completed localized deployment for the first time in a million ton ethylene project, achieving 100% localization and adaptation of the entire stack; Establish China's first 5G independent private network with full scenario production and closed-loop data in the petrochemical industry; Building the industry's first integrated functional platform for carbon compliance, carbon trading, and green product certification; We have built China's first independently developed optimized control system that is compatible with the full density polyethylene process package, breaking through technological barriers in one fell swoop. The successful operation of the intelligent factory has verified the feasibility of the deep integration of digitalization, localization, and greening in the petrochemical industry, and has the value of industry replication and promotion.Editor/Gao Xue