In Feb. 2012, on the official website, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released “The Olefin Industry 12th Five Year Planning”, which required that: during 2011-2015, the solid target is the diversification of olefin feedstock. The target includes: By 2015, China''s ethylene capacity to reach 27 Mt/a and propylene capacity to reach 24 Mt/a, and the rate of olefin feedstock diversification over 20%.

The Governmental policies will encourage the import of condensates, light hydrocarbon and other resources, to optimize the structure of the olefin feedstock; based on the rich coal resources and self-developed  technologies, to appropriately develop the coal to olefins; and maximized utilize the refinery by-product to produce olefins.

ASIACHEM estimated that, encouraged by policies and driven by market, in the coming years, China''s propylene feedstock diversification will face the golden opportunities. The main applied technology will include propane dehydrogenation to propylene (PDH) and methanol to propylene (MTO / MTP); other propylene production enhancing technologies, such as olefin cracking (OCP) and the conversion of olefins (OCU), as well as the fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) will also be well used.

Under this background, the “2012 Propylene Feedstock Diversification Conference” will be held in Shanghai in April. In the upcoming conference, the outlook of propylene industry in 2011-2015, the opportunities and challenges of propylene feedstock diversification, PDH & MTO/MTP projects update, propylene production enhancing technologies, technical and economic analysis of different routes will be focused.