【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】2019–2025: The Southwest Research Institute achieves self-sufficiency in domestic coal-to-natural gas technology
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This post was last edited by FishSwimmingInTheDesert on June 6, 2025, at 15:45. Let’s give a thumbs up and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical technology and equipment sector. Your participation in the discussion serves as the greatest motivation! ********************** [Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Equipment] This is a continuously updated summary thread; all are welcome to join the discussion: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** On May 27, Southwest Research Institute won the bid for providing technical licensing, process package development, overall design, and basic engineering design services for a coal-to-natural gas methanation plant with an annual capacity of 2 billion standard cubic meters for ** Energy Group. This win marks China’s achievement of full autonomy and control over the entire methanation process for coal-to-natural gas production. Faced with the long-standing gap in domestic methaneation technology for coal-to-natural gas, the Southwest Research Institute formed a research team to devote full effort to overcoming this technical challenge. Through years of effort, the \"low circulation ratio wide-temperature shift methanation process\" along with the corresponding catalyst products have been successfully developed, and the core technical parameters have reached international advanced levels. The Southwest Institute will fully leverage its comprehensive advantages to ensure the high-quality completion and commissioning of the project, increase China’s natural gas self-sufficiency rate, and alleviate the pressure of reliance on foreign energy sources. The winning \"low cycle ratio wide-temperature shift methanization process\" is the first domestically developed process package; its cycle volume is 30% lower than that of foreign technologies, resulting in lower energy consumption and reduced operating costs ； Through continuous optimization of the accompanying catalyst products, the problems of catalyst carbon deposition and thermal stability have been resolved. These products have enabled long-term operation at Qinghua Energy, with performance that is superior to that of foreign products. This represents a significant breakthrough in the supporting technologies and related products for coal-to-natural gas methanization processes in China, pushing the industry as a whole to a leading level.
Recent winning bids: On March 31, the results of the public bidding for the overall design and foundation engineering design services for Guoneng Xinjiang Coal-to-Gas Co., Ltd.’s 2 billion cubic meters per year coal-to-natural gas project in Zhundong were announced. The winning bidder was Saiding Engineering Co., Ltd., with a bid amount of 13.98 million yuan. For the project management services related to this same project, Phase 1 was won by CIC Engineering Co., Ltd., with a bid amount of 24.01483 million yuan; Phase 2 was won by Beijing Huaxia Petrochemical Engineering Supervision Co., Ltd., with a bid amount of 24.5127 million yuan. Sinopec Ningbo Engineering is responsible for the overall design, and the project has now entered the engineering design phase.
Main construction contents: Air separation: 2×70,000 m³/h (oxygen production capacity). Fully electric drive, powered entirely by green energy. Coal gasification: pressurized gasification of pulverized coal, 50×104 m³/h (in terms of CO+H₂) + 12×104 m³/h (in terms of CH4). The coal feeding rate per unit is 1,385 tons per day, and the exit temperature of the gasifier is 185°C. Gas-water separation: capacity of 4×500 t/h. Phenol-amine recovery: capacity of 2×500 t/h. Transformation and cooling unit: processing capacity of 130×104 m³/h. Acid gas removal: treatment capacity of 102×104 m³/h. Refrigeration compression: Cooling capacity of 25,000 kW, carbon dioxide handling capacity of 67,000 m³/h. Methane synthesis: The scale of methane synthesis is 20×108 m³/year. Natural gas drying and compression: capacity of 20×108 m³/year. LNG liquefaction plant: capacity of 50×104 m³/day. Sulfur recovery: capacity of 2×24,000 tons per year. Green hydrogen: capacity of 15,000 m³/h. CCUS facility: 100,000 tons per year for Phase 1, and 450,000 tons per year for Phase 2. Project demonstration contents: Industrial demonstration of large-scale environmentally friendly fixed-bed gasification technology, with the diameter of the gasifier increased to 5 meters; industrial demonstration of domestic large-scale high-temperature methanation technology; industrial demonstration of domestic low-temperature methanol washing technology suitable for producing syngas via fixed-bed gasification at a capacity of 1 million standard cubic meters per hour; demonstration of coal chemical industry integrated with green hydrogen for carbon reduction; and demonstration of fully electric-driven approaches for pollution reduction and carbon emission cuts
12 years of effort to achieve technological breakthroughs: Starting with the formation of a research team at the end of 2009, the Southwest Institute embarked on this 12-year journey toward technological advancement. “\"Reducing energy consumption and controlling costs\" is the tough challenge in this technological struggle. Through processes such as pilot tests, model tests, pilot-scale trials, as well as industrial-scale trials, along with thousands of optimizations of process parameters and hundreds of improvements to catalyst formulations, the researchers at the Southwest Institute have ultimately developed a \"low circulation ratio, wide-temperature shift methanation process\" that holds independent intellectual property rights belonging to the institute, along with the corresponding catalyst products. An all-round process, a benchmark in the industry, that achieves a significant reduction in energy consumption; this process can truly be regarded as a \"six-sided warrior\" in the industry. Compared with existing technologies, its wide-temperature conversion, methanation reaction, and high-efficiency heat recovery system significantly reduce the volume of circulating gas, enable the complete utilization of the heat generated by the methanation reaction, directly cut energy consumption, and extend the service life of the facility. The accompanying ultra-precise purifiers, wide-temperature shift catalysts, and methanation catalysts feature strong thermal stability, few side reactions, an extremely long service life, excellent resistance to carbon deposition, and a low activation temperature. Three years ago, the methanation catalyst series developed by the Southwest Research Institute were applied in Qinghua Energy Group’s coal-to-natural gas methanation plant with a capacity of 1.375 billion cubic meters per year; they have since operated safely and stably over long periods, with an average load of nearly 110% ； Last year, a complete replacement of foreign catalysts was successfully achieved at the 1 billion cubic meters per year coal-to-natural gas methanation plant in Xintian, Ili ； On May 27 of this year, the company won the bid for **Energy Group’s project to build a coal-to-natural gas methanation plant with an annual capacity of 2 billion cubic meters, achieving full domestic production for the entire process.