The 80,000-ton coal-based melamine production project at Yihua in Zhundong, Xinjiang, is expected to come online in November
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On the Gobi desert in Caibei Industrial Park of the Zhundong Development Zone, the second phase of Xinjiang Yihua Chemical’s coal-based melamine project, worth 2.57 billion yuan, is in its final stages of completion. This \"giant\" project, which began construction in May 2023, has seen its supporting cabinet rooms erected; the recirculating water system and equipment in the power station are all in place. Workers are working around the clock to install electrical instruments, with completion of all supporting facilities expected by the end of October, after which the system will enter the testing phase. What makes this project stand out is first and foremost its scale: a complete production system that includes a 80,000 tons per year melamine plant, an exhaust gas recovery system, and boilers with a capacity of 770 tons per hour. The second-phase power station utilizes the latest process package from the Italian company OTEC, enabling an energy efficiency improvement of over 30% compared to the first-phase installation, as well as a significant increase in the level of automation. This technological upgrade is not an isolated action; by connecting with the pipelines of the adjacent Phase 1 facility, resources such as water vapor can be allocated efficiently, creating a synergistic effect where \"1+1>2\". Safety management also reflects the concept of refined management in modern industry. The grid-based supervision system, which includes daily safety meetings before work and weekly comprehensive inspections, ensures that this construction site, whose area is equivalent to 56 standard football fields (with the power station alone covering 40,000 square meters), maintains a record of \"zero major accidents\". This rigorous approach is perhaps the key factor that enables the company to continue expanding in the Zhundong Development Zone. Following this project, the company plans to invest 21.4 billion yuan to build 5 melamine production units as well as downstream resin production lines, thereby creating the largest coal-based chemical materials cluster in the country. Once the project goes into operation in November, its significance will go far beyond mere production capacity figures. As a key raw material for high-performance materials such as building templates and automotive plastics, melamine will facilitate a remarkable transformation of Xinjiang’s coal resources from being used as fuel to being utilized as materials. More profoundly, this industrial chain expansion model centered on coal-to-methanol—synthetic ammonia—melamine is reshaping the traditional development logic of simply mining and selling coal. The Zhundong Development Zone currently possesses deep-processing capabilities for 200,000 tons of BDO and 60,000 tons of PTMEG, which, together with the melamine project, form a portfolio of high-value-added products. The sandstorms in the Gobi remain, but the gears of industrial civilization are accelerating irreversibly. From a pilot project worth 2.57 billion yuan to a blueprint for an industrial cluster worth 21.4 billion yuan, the efforts of Xinjiang Yihua Chemicals reveal a trend: against the backdrop of the \"dual carbon\" goals, coal chemical industries in the western region are finding new ways to strike a balance between resource conversion efficiency and economic benefits through technological upgrades and integration within industrial chains. As the steam from the melamine plants rises in Junggar, it may well represent yet another solid step forward for Xinjiang’s industrial economy as it moves up the value chain.
The supporting projects are nearing completion, with system testing about to begin. At the construction site, the cabinet rooms designed to serve the second phase of the 80,000-ton coal-based melamine production facility are already in place, and all the main equipment for the circulating water system and the power station has also been installed. The workers are working intensively on the installation of electrical instruments, striving to ensure that the project progresses as planned. The project leader stated that the construction team will strictly follow the established plan, and once the accompanying facilities are completed, it will immediately proceed with the critical system testing phase. It is expected that all of these accompanying facilities will be fully built by the end of October to the beginning of November this year. Of massive scale, it lays a solid foundation for security. Since its official commencement of construction in May 2023, this project has attracted considerable attention. The construction scope includes not only the core 80,000 tons per year melamine production unit along with the associated exhaust gas recovery system, but also a backup gasification furnace with a capacity of 60,000 standard cubic meters per hour, a boiler with a capacity of 770 tons per hour, as well as various other important auxiliary facilities such as a circulating water station, a desalinated water station, a reclaimed water station, office buildings, plant substations, and cabinet rooms, thereby creating a complete and advanced production system. While keeping strict attention to the schedule, the project contractor gives top priority to safety. Through daily pre-shift safety reminders and weekly comprehensive safety inspections, potential hazards are identified promptly and corrective actions are enforced; the management philosophy of \"lean construction with precise accountability\" is implemented to establish a solid safety barrier for the smooth progress of the project.
Technological upgrades and efficient coordination of resources: It is worth noting that Yihua Chemical already has a set of production facilities for melamine, Phase I, that are operating stably in the Zhundong industrial park. According to Gao Aijun, the person in charge of the project site, the second-phase facility and its supporting systems are built adjacent to the first phase, and pipelines are used to connect and transport resources such as steam, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of resource utilization and reflecting advanced design concepts of integration and consolidation. Notably, the power station serving as the core facility for Phase 2 covers an area of 40,000 square meters, representing a significant technological advancement. The project utilizes the latest process packages from the Italian company EUROTECNICA. This not only optimizes the equipment configuration and significantly improves energy-saving and emission-reduction efficiency, but also greatly enhances the automation level of the facility, laying a solid technical foundation for achieving higher levels of production capacity and stable operation in the future. Extending the industrial chain and unleashing its potential: The completion and operation of this project hold great significance for the development of the coal chemical industry in Xinjiang Yihua Chemical as well as in the entire Zhundong Development Zone. It not only marks a significant breakthrough by Yihua Chemical in expanding its production capacity in the field of coal-based high-value chemical products, but it is also a crucial step toward the company’s continued expansion into the higher-value segments of the industrial chain. In the future, relying on this project, Xinjiang Yihua Chemical will continue to invest in research and development efforts to develop downstream derivatives of melamine, thereby expanding and diversifying the coal chemical industry chain and fully unlocking its production potential. This will not only significantly enhance a company’s core competitiveness in the fierce market competition, but it will also inject strong and sustainable new industrial momentum into the high-quality development of the Xinjiang Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone. As the massive industrial facilities in the Junggar Desert gradually silence the noise associated with construction, their operational hum will carry forward the vision of upgrading Xinjiang’s Yihua chemical industry. It will also serve as another milestone in Xinjiang’s industrial economy’s steady progress toward higher-value-added sectors, as part of the efforts to transform coal resources efficiently and promote green development.
In May 2023, the Management Committee of the Jingzhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone conducted a public announcement prior to submitting for approval the environmental impact assessment for Xinjiang Yihua Chemical Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Xinjiang Yihua”)’s project to produce 80,000 tons of melamine per year. Xinjiang Yihua Company plans to invest in the construction of an 80,000-ton/year melamine production facility, while also upgrading the existing ammonia/sulfuric acid urea production plants and the steam supply systems within the plant. The items to be constructed include: (1) an 80,000-ton/year melamine production facility along with a waste gas recovery system ； (2) One 7000 m3/h standby gasification furnace ； (3) Simultaneously construct a 770t/h coal-fired boiler + 75MW backpressure power generation unit. Melamine is produced using the latest high-pressure production technology from the Italian company Otech, making it the largest melamine production facility of its kind today. The melamine project uses molten urea from Yihua Company’s existing urea production facility as raw material; it does not increase the capacity for ammonia synthesis or urea production, nor does it raise the consumption of raw coal and fuel coal. Additionally, it does not alter the production process of the existing 600,000-ton per year alcohol-amine co-production plant. The melamine plant is equipped with an exhaust gas recovery system to treat the exhaust gases and ammonium-poor liquid generated by the plant, while simultaneously producing urea. All the urea produced as a by-product is used as raw material for the melamine production facility. The exhaust gas recovery system mainly includes an ammonia system, a high-pressure synthesis system, a low-pressure circulation system, an evaporation and condensation system, and a desorption and hydrolysis system. The newly built backup gasifier utilizes the fluidized bed technology developed by Zhongke Hefei Gasification Technology Co., Ltd., and is consistent with the process and equipment selection of the existing gasifiers. This facility is a backup unit; it does not increase the raw material consumption of Yihua Company’s existing ammonia/sulfuric acid urea production plants, nor does it result in any additional pollutant emissions.
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