Arco (part fo BP now) had this technology some 25 years ago. They did not
go through with industrialization due to the market conditons then (MEOH
cost vs olefins).
I have reasons to believe the parties you talked about got the idea from old
literatures including expired patents. Ther eis nothing wrong with that as
patents are supposed to benefit the whole human race after the protection
period runs out. BUt the real question
is when the smart folks back in CHina can come up with somehting that is
indigenious, novel and profit generating with all those large sums of R&D
RMB out of the CHinese tax payers' pockets? I know of a few examples where
the so called R&D grants from Beijing did not make a scratch on what were
supposedly funded for but rather went to the bank accounts of a few
individuals. ONe of those happens to be someone I know super well. The
brighter side fo the deal about these spendings is ty[pically the government
gets a nice report back from a CERTIFICATION committee made up of some well
known EXPERTS in the field after a conference wiht lots of Ganbeis hosted
by the grant receipient. How do you like that?