【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】1340–2022: Development of the core equipment for the world’s first 10,000-ton per year polylactic acid production facility

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Polyglycolic acid (PGA), also known as polyhydroxyacetic acid, is an aliphatic polyester polymer with the lowest number of carbon atoms in its structure, a fully biodegradable ester structure, and the fastest degradation rate. It is widely used in various fields such as oil and gas extraction, medical sutures, materials for fixing fractures, and tissue engineering scaffolds, as well as in agriculture, forestry, and food packaging. **The 50,000-ton/year polyglycolic acid biodegradable materials demonstration project of Yulin Chemical Company, part of the Energy Group, utilizes syngas to produce polyglycolic acid. It is the world’s first polyglycolic acid production facility with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year; it represents a **-level demonstration project as well as an extension of the coal-to-olefins industry chain. This project will mark a breakthrough for China in the field of biodegradable plastics. The biodegradable materials produced by this project can serve as a substantial substitute for single-use plastic products, and they can be completely degraded without causing any harm in natural environments such as soil and seawater within just six months to one year. In the first half of this year, LANSI Heavy Equipment delivered on schedule and to high quality the 6 reactors and 14 towers developed for **Energy Group Yulin Chemical Company’s 50,000 tons per year polyglycolic acid biodegradable materials demonstration project, in May. On September 19, the project completed all its production processes and was officially put into operation. Lanshi Heavy Equipment is responsible for manufacturing the core equipment for this project, namely the reaction vessels, including pressure polymerization reaction vessels, atmospheric pressure polymerization reaction vessels, first, second, and third vacuum reaction vessels, as well as reaction vessels for reusing materials; the manufacturing and assembly of the internal components of these vessels are quite complex. After being manufactured in the factory, the pressurized polymerization reactor and the third vacuum reactor were transported to the site in sections, where the subsequent manufacturing was carried out by a mobile factory.