Yushen Energy Chemicals of Yanchang Petroleum plans to use ethanol to produce acetaldehyde/1,3-butanediol

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On January 23, 2026, an expert review meeting for the \"Feasibility Study Report on the High-Value Utilization of Coal-Based Ethanol to Produce Polyols\" was held in Xi’an, marking the completion of a key review stage for this feasibility study report and laying a solid foundation for the further advancement of the project. This project builds on the company’s 500,000 tons per year capacity for coal-based ethanol to expand production to 30,000 tons per year of acetaldehyde and 10,000 tons per year of high-value products such as 1,3-butanediol. Previously, the Xi’an Clean Energy (Chemical Engineering) Research Institute of Yanchang Petroleum Dalian Research Institute carried out a thousand-ton-scale industrial pilot test on the production of acetaldehyde via the dehydration of coal-based ethanol. The pilot plant completed a 72-hour on-site testing and calibration period from May 26 to 29, 2023, providing an important basis for advancing the project toward industrialization. The newly developed highly dispersed copper-based catalyst by the team from the Dalian Research Institute of Petrochemicals, Yanchang Petroleum, and the Xi’an Clean Energy (Chemical Engineering) Research Institute enables an efficient and highly stable catalytic conversion process for the direct anaerobic dehydrogenation of low-cost coal-based ethanol into acetaldehyde and hydrogen. Yushen Energy Chemical Plant of Yanchang Petroleum uses a space furnace for powder coal gasification, cobalt-molybdenum sulfur-resistant wide-temperature shift reaction, low-temperature methanol washing, cryogenic separation plus PSA for hydrogen extraction in its 500,000 tons per year coal-based ethanol production process. Shanghai International Construction Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. is responsible for the adiabatic isothermal methanol synthesis process, while the Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology provides the dimethyl ether-based ethanol synthesis technology. The plant has an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons of methanol and 500,000 tons of ethanol. Trial production began in March 2023.