Air Products’ world’s first gasification project comes online

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On November 2, Air Products announced that its Luan coal gasification project located in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, has been fully operational. It supplies syngas and other industrial gases to the syngas-to-oil project operated by Shanxi Luan Coal-based Clean Energy Co., Ltd. This is Air Products’ first coal gasification project worldwide. This world-scale gasification project includes four large air separation units, four gasification furnaces, and two syngas purification systems. The gasifier used in this project employs Shell’s proven gasification technology; it is the world’s largest Shell (coal) gasifier, delivering excellent performance in terms of coal input volume, gas production volume, carbon conversion rate, and operational efficiency. In 2013, Air Products signed an agreement with Shanxi Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. to build and operate four large-scale air separation units for its subsidiary Lu’an Clean Energy in Changzhi, with a daily production capacity of over 10,000 tons of oxygen, over 6,000 tons of nitrogen, and over 700 tons of instrument air. In September 2017, Air Products and Lu’an Clean Energy established a joint venture in which Air Products held 60% of the shares. Both parties jointly own and operate the air separation units as well as the gasification and syngas purification facilities at the Changzhi plant. Air Products has been actively implementing its gasification strategy over the past two years. In August of this year, the company secured a long-term on-site gas supply contract to supply syngas for Jutai New Materials Co., Ltd.’s ethylene glycol project in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, which involves investments in the billions of dollars; this is Air Products’ first gasification plant that it owns outright. That same month, Air Products also signed a letter of intent with Saudi Aramco and ACWA Power to establish a gasification/power generation joint venture in Jizan Economic City, Saudi Arabia, with a total investment of over $8 billion. In November 2017, the company announced a joint venture with Yankuang Group to build coal-to-syngas production facilities in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, with a total investment of $3.5 billion. Earlier this year, the company also acquired Shell’s gasification technology and patents.