China’s Bold Bet On Low-Carbon Petrochemicals

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has begun commercial operations at its Tarim Phase II Ethylene Project in Xinjiang, bringing online a 1.2 MTPA ethylene complex that the company describes as China’s first full-chain green and low-carbon ethylene project. The project is located at Korla, a county-level city in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The startup marks a major expansion of petrochemical capacity in western China and completes a 3 MTPA ethylene production base in the country’s central and western regions.

At the heart of the facility is a fully electrified “three-machine” compressor system comprising a cracked gas compressor, propylene refrigeration compressor, and ethylene refrigeration compressor.

Compressor trains at ethylene plants are traditionally driven by steam turbines powered by fossil-fuel-fired utility systems. CNPC replaced this thermal-drive technology with a domestically developed electric-drive configuration, a move the company says represents China’s first indigenous electric-driven system for a world-scale ethylene cracker and one of the first implementations globally.

Shenyang Blower Group (SHG) supplied the compressor package. The electric-drive system is supported by large medium-voltage variable-frequency drives supplied by Shanghai Nancal Electric, enabling precise speed control and improved energy efficiency, the company said.

The compressor electrification is central to the project’s decarbonization strategy. CNPC says the plant will consume about 1 billion kWh of renewable electricity annually from nearby photovoltaic facilities and reduce carbon emissions by approximately 1.37 MTPA.

The project also features a carbon capture and utilization (CCU) system that recovers low-concentration carbon dioxide (CO₂) from ethylene cracking furnace flue gas. Captured CO₂ is combined with recovered process hydrogen and routed into downstream ammonia and fertilizer production, creating a closed-loop carbon utilization chain. CNPC describes the installation as China’s first integrated application of low-concentration flue-gas CO₂ capture within a world-scale ethylene complex and a key contributor to the plant’s emissions reduction goals.