Grace expands Unipol PP technology capacity with Oriental Energy

Oriental Energy now operates four sites utilizing the UNIPOL PP technology offering 1.6 million tons of PP licensed capacity

W. R. Grace & Co. (Grace), the leading independent supplier of polyolefin catalyst technology and polypropylene (PP) process technology, announced that Oriental Energy Co. Ltd. (Oriental Energy) has started up a new plant with Grace’s UNIPOL PP Process Technology.

Located in Maoming, China, the new 400 kilotons per annum (KTA) reactor line began producing high-quality homopolymers and random copolymers on September 15, 2023.

Oriental Energy now operates four sites utilizing the UNIPOL PP technology offering 1.6 million tons of PP licensed capacity: 400 KTA at Zhangjiagang (which started up in 2015); two 400 KTA reactor lines in Ningbo (which started up in 2021); and the new plant in Maoming. Oriental Energy currently holds the largest total UNIPOL® PP process technology capacity in operation in China.

Sandra Wisniewski, President of Specialty Catalysts at W. R. Grace, said, "The collaboration with Oriental Energy towards the successful start-up in Maoming marks another milestone in our partnership. Our advanced PP process technology delivers on our Plant Lifetime Performance commitment, as evidenced by the longstanding relationship between our two companies."

Echoing the sentiment, Sun Canqian, General Manager at Oriental Energy (Maoming) Co. Ltd., added, "We appreciate the joint effort the Oriental Energy and Grace teams provided to ensure a successful start-up, demonstrating a catalysis reaction that occurred within 10 minutes of injection. This new UNIPOL PP technology line aligns with our commitment to providing quality polypropylene products in China."