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Hengyi Industries selects Univation’s technology for new polyethylene project in Brunei

| By Mary Bailey

Hengyi Industries Sdn. Bhd., has selected Univation Technologies’ (Houston) UNIPOL PE Process for its world-scale 600,000-ton/yr polyethylene (PE) plant to be located in Palau Muara Besar, Brunei. The new PE plant will be integrated into a larger refinery and petrochemicals project centered on a 14-million metric tons/year (280,000 bbl/d) crude oil refinery that will include 11.2 million metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of downstream capacity producing ethylene, benzene, para-xylene, ethylene glycol (EG), purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET, polyester). The project will also include capacity to produce 6.33 million m.t./yr of fuels.

Hengyi Industries elected to take advantage of the flexible product capability of the UNIPOL™ PE Technology with a full-density plant design to produce a broad range of HDPE and LLDPE products to satisfy large-volume product demand for flexible packaging films and various polyethylene molded articles. With this versatile manufacturing capability, Hengyi’s plans to implement an export-centric strategy focused on serving growing PE demand opportunities in southeast Asia as well as China.

Hengyi has also selected Univation’s advanced software platforms for both process control capability and virtual process training. Hengyi will deploy Univation’s most current generation of advanced process control capability: PREMIER Advanced Process Control 3.0. This process control platform provides Hengyi’s UNIPOL PE Plant with state-of-the-art process control capability designed to maximize production rates, ensure efficient plant operations and enhance overall operational reliability of the UNIPOL PE Process. Furthermore, Hengyi will employ UNIPOL PE Virtual Plant Simulator (UVPS) Software which is Univation’s latest process simulator training tool. This virtual training system provides Hengyi’s operating staff with a highly realistic and interactive training experience by simulating real-time process operations for the UNIPOL PE Process.

“The Palau Muara Besar refinery and petrochemicals project represents a significant investment within Brunei, and Univation is proud that Hengyi Industries has selected UNIPOL PE Technology for this strategic and multi-faceted project,” commented Dr. Steven Stanley, President of Univation Technologies. Dr. Stanley continued, “For Hengyi’s project, UNIPOL PE Technology delivers multi-decade experience in large capacity designs for world-class PE plants while also providing excellent economic value including the initial CAPEX investment as well as highly competitive OPEX for the resulting products. Hengyi will also be able to take advantage of the highly flexible production capability delivered by the UNIPOL PE Process, which covers a wide range of competitive HDPE and LLDPE products that are readily recognized and accepted by the market. Our Univation teams are already highly engaged in collaborating with Hengyi as we look forward to a safe start-up of this new world-scale facility.”

Mr. Chen Lian Cai, CEO of Hengyi Industries, included his comments, “This Hengyi Industry project represents Brunei’s first-ever world-class oil refinery and petrochemical complex and also marks an important milestone as our company’s second significant capital investment for the Palau Muara Besar site. Once completed, this complex will deliver a wide range of high-value downstream derivative products as well as adding new fuels capacity to satisfy growing demand within the energy market.” Mr. Chen continued his comments, “Tapping into experienced global technology solution providers was a critical factor for a successful project – and we are pleased to have selected Univation’s UNIPOL PE Technology as an essential investment to provide Hengyi with a highly flexible polyethylene manufacturing platform for our complex. We rely upon both Univation’s technical expertise and extensive experience within the polyethylene technology field to provide close support to our Hengyi project teams during the design, commissioning and safe start-up of this key asset.”