Detailed design for 900,000-ton methanol distillation project in Inner Mongolia begins

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Detailed design for Inner Mongolia’s 900,000-ton methanol distillation project begins. Author/Source: Date: 2017-02-13. Clicks: 19. On February 7, the detailed design work for Zhongtian Hechuang’s 900,000-ton/year methanol distillation project was launched. The project plans to start pile foundation construction at the end of March 2017, with completion expected by the end of September 2017. Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co., Ltd. is responsible for the detailed engineering design, material procurement, construction, and commissioning of this project. The main components of the coal-to-olefins unit in Zhongtian Hechuang’s Ordos coal deep processing demonstration project include a 3.6 million tons per year coal-to-methanol plant, a 1.37 million tons per year polyolefins plant, as well as supporting air separation, boiler, power generation, and auxiliary production facilities. The methanol synthesis unit produces MTO-grade methanol, which is the raw material required for the production of downstream olefins; this methanol has a purity of 95 wt%, and a single-column distillation process is employed. The methanol synthesis plant consists of two trains, with each train having a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year (based on 100% methanol), and the operating flexibility of the plant is 60–110%. To enhance the flexibility of production across the entire plant and improve its market adaptability and competitiveness, it is planned to expand and extend the existing methanol synthesis unit by adding a new methanol distillation unit with an annual capacity of 900,000 tons. This will allow some of the MTO-grade methanol to be further distilled into industrial-grade methanol that meets ** standards. The Zhongtian Hechuang Ordos coal chemical project is located in the Tuk Chemical Industry Zone in Tuk Town, Wushen Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. With a total investment of around 60 billion yuan, it is currently the largest coal-to-olefins project; its core processing technology relies on the S-MTO technology for which Sinopec holds independent intellectual property rights. On September 24, 2016, the 3.6 million tons per year methanol production facility (comprising 2 units, each with a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year) as part of Zhongtian Hechuang’s Ordos coal deep processing demonstration project successfully produced qualified methanol products. On October 28, the project completed all process steps, producing qualified polyethylene and polypropylene.