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Meeting Held for the Expansion Project of EO Production at Ningbo Fude with 1.8 Million Tons of Methanol as Feedstock Author/Source: Refining and Petrochemical News Date: 2020-10-27 Clicks: 126 Recently, a meeting to kick off the expansion project for EO (ethylene oxide) production at Ningbo Fude Energy Co., Ltd., designed by Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co., Ltd., was held in Beijing, marking a good start for the implementation of this project. The meeting provided a detailed introduction to the appointment of team members, their background information, and the requirements for their work. Liu Hanying, assistant to the general manager of Beiyou Engineering, explained the process flow and on-site conditions of this project, emphasizing the special physicochemical properties of the process medium, ethylene oxide, and outlining specific requirements for various departments regarding the issues they need to pay attention to during the design process. It is understood that the EO production capacity target for this project is 200,000 tons per year, with a guaranteed value of 150,000 tons per year. The total design period is 7 months (2 months for feasibility study, 5 months for the first phase of design). The main tasks involve the secondary capacity expansion and renovation of the EO product system, with the renovation covering the EO purification system, EO storage tanks, EO loading facilities, as well as the associated refrigeration units and circulating water system. Ningbo Fude Energy Co., Ltd. was established in March 2010 with a total investment of 8 billion yuan. It has four main production facilities, including an olefin production plant capable of producing 1.8 million tons per year from methanol, an olefin separation plant (including an OCU unit) with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year, an ethylene glycol production plant with a capacity of 500,000 tons per year, and a polypropylene production plant with a capacity of 400,000 tons per year. In addition, it possesses utility facilities such as boilers, air separation units, storage tanks, and water treatment systems. The project passed the completion inspection for safety facilities in January 2014 and obtained a safety production license; it generates annual sales revenue of over 10 billion yuan and annual tax payments of over 1 billion yuan. Fude Energy (Ningbo) takes into account the characteristics of China’s energy structure and utilizes the DMTO technology developed independently in China. This advanced methanol-to-olefins technology uses low-carbon methanol as a raw material to produce valuable basic organic compounds such as ethylene and propylene through non-petroleum routes. It further processes these compounds to manufacture ethylene glycol and polypropylene, products that are in short supply in the country. This technology is in line with energy development strategies and industrial policies, and it holds significant strategic importance for ensuring energy security, optimizing the energy consumption structure, improving energy efficiency, and reducing environmental pollution.