On October 25, 2026, the sea breeze of Jinshanwei by Hangzhou Bay continued to pass through the factory's pipe gallery as usual. Fifty four years ago, also on this mudflat, more than 50000 farmers, carrying carrying poles and shovel, suddenly built 8.4km seawalls in the rain and snow to enclose the land for factory construction, so that Chinese people could wear clothes without patching. Now, a new pile has been set on the same land - the main unit of the SPC comprehensive technical transformation and quality upgrading project, the 1.2 million tons/year ethylene plant, has officially started construction. This is a major engineering project in Shanghai, and also another entrepreneurship of this enterprise more than half a century later.

Replacing old production capacity with new ones

The new device is expected to be completed by the end of October 2028. At that time, the 700000 tons/year ethylene plant that has been in operation for many years will be shut down and withdrawn, and the annual production capacity of SPC ethylene will jump from 700000 tons to 1.2 million tons. This is not just a simple stacking of production capacity, but a complete replacement of old with new. The total investment of the project is about 21.3 billion yuan. Within the existing factory area, 15 new units will be built, 5 units will be renovated, and 18 units will be shut down. The refining capacity of 14 million tons per year will remain unchanged, and more crude oil resources will be shifted from the fuel end to the chemical end, following the path of reducing oil and increasing production. After the retirement of the old equipment, the intrinsic safety and environmental protection level of the enterprise has been synchronously improved, the structure of refined oil products has become more reasonable, and the ability to ensure the supply of aviation kerosene has also been strengthened.

Independent technology takes the lead

The confidence of this device lies in technology. It adopts Sinopec's low energy consumption ethylene separation technology with independent intellectual property rights, also known as LECT in the industry, which has reached the world's leading level and features safety, reliability, smooth operation, and low comprehensive energy consumption. Ethylene is known as the mother of the petrochemical industry, and the separation process is a major energy consumer. Every small step forward in separation technology is directly converted into the long-term operating costs and carbon emission intensity of the equipment. This technology has been validated in million ton ethylene plants such as Sinopec Hainan and Sinopec SK Petrochemical, and now landing in Jinshan means that the core process is firmly in our hands.

New materials have a source

The real change occurs downstream. After the project is fully completed, SPC can provide nearly 3 million tons of high-end chemical products and fine chemical raw materials for the downstream industrial chain every year. This is in line with the layout of enterprises in the new materials field in recent years: 48K and 60K large fiber bundles of carbon fiber have successively achieved breakthroughs in localization, becoming the world's second and only domestic enterprise to master 60K technology; The first phase of the Inner Mongolia base's annual production of 30000 tons of large fiber bundle carbon fiber project has been put into operation and qualified products have been produced; Projects such as comprehensive utilization of carbon five carbon nine, photovoltaic grade EVA, and lithium electronic carbonate are being launched simultaneously. SPC Deputy General Manager Li Shantao stated that this ethylene plant carries the strategic mission of the enterprise's second entrepreneurship and the construction of a new Jinshan, and will promote construction with high standards, striving to create a benchmark project.keywords:New energy information network

From building land around embankments to producing millions of tons of ethylene, the protagonist of the Jinshan story has always been humans. Three years later, when the 1.2 million tons/year ethylene plant is put into operation here, it not only sends out raw materials, but also provides the confidence for an established refining enterprise to turn towards high-end new materials and fine chemicals.Editor/Yang Meiling