China's Sinopec said it has started building a project worth 10.8 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) in a northern subsidiary refinery aimed at manufacturing more high-end chemicals.

The project, being built alongside Sinopec's Shijiangzhuang refinery in Hebei province, includes 12 facilities such as a 3 million tonne-per-year (tpy) catalytic cracker, a 700,000-tpy gasoline hydrotreating unit and 100,000-tpy epichlorohydrin unit, Sinopec said in a statement.

One of the key chemical products from this upgrade will be used for manufacturing cosmetics and higher-performance plastics.

Under a national goal to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon-neutrality by 2060, national energy companies such as Sinopec have pledged multi-billion dollar investments in green sectors such as renewable energy, carbon capture and cleaner refining.

Sinopec said it will also upgrade existing kerosene hydrogenation facility and olefin recovery capacity at the Shijiazhuang refinery.

The refiner has already invested in other low-carbon and carbon-capture projects, launching China's largest carbon-capture facility in eastern Shandong province last August. -Reuters