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Successful Commissioning of the Batch-Type High-Pressure Polyethylene Plant in Zhongtian Hechuang’s Ordos Coal Deep Processing Pilot Project Author/Source: Date: 2017-08-08 Clicks: 10 On August 6, the 120,000-ton/year batch-type high-pressure polyethylene plant as part of Zhongtian Hechuang’s Ordos Coal Deep Processing Pilot Project, constructed by Sinopec Refining & Chemical Engineering Company No. 10, was successfully commissioned after the initial feeding process, and qualified products were produced. It marks the successful completion of the Zhongtian Hechuang project construction. It is reported that since the 120,000 tons per year batch-type high-pressure polyethylene plant built by Zhongtian Hechuang began operations in November 2014, thanks to the day-and-night efforts of the project team, various construction tasks have been completed, including the installation of 3,939 meters of underground pipelines, 1,654 tons of steel structures, 246 static equipment units, 163 dynamic equipment units, process pipelines with a total length of 97,857 inches, as well as 152,000 meters of electrical and instrumentation cables. The plant utilizes EXXON MOBILL autoclave process technology, with a capacity of 120,000 tons per year. This process uses ethylene as the raw material and a mixture of organic peroxides as an initiator; under high temperature and pressure, synthetic resin is produced through the free-radical polymerization of ethylene. The low-density polyethylene products manufactured by this device have a low density, good flexibility, as well as excellent low-temperature resistance and chemical stability. These products are mainly suitable for thermoplastic processing methods such as coating, injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, and thermoforming. The Zhongtian Hechuang project is currently the world’s largest coal-to-olefins project; once completed, the capacity for methanol-to-olefins production will reach 3.6 million tons per year, utilizing the S-MTO technology developed through a collaboration between Sinopec Refining & Chemical Engineering and China Petrochemical Corporation. On June 30, 2016, after the main production units of the Zhongtian Hechuang coal deep processing demonstration project were put into operation, the methanol unit produced qualified methanol at 2:30 a.m. on September 24; the loop polypropylene unit produced qualified polypropylene granules at 9:20 a.m. on October 23; and the linear polyethylene unit produced qualified polyethylene granules at 3:21 p.m. on October 26. The commissioning of the first series of units in this chemical project was successful from the very first attempt. The Zhongtian Hechuang Ordos Coal Deep Processing Demonstration Project was built through a joint venture by four shareholders (China National Coal Energy Group Co., Ltd. holds 38.75% of the shares, Sinopec Corporation holds 38.75% of the shares, Shanghai Sheneng Group Co., Ltd. holds 12.5% of the shares, and Inner Mongolia Manshi Coal Group Co., Ltd. holds 10% of the shares). The project was overall designed by Sinopec Refining & Chemical Engineering (SEG), and it mainly includes production units such as gasification, purification, methanol synthesis, methanol-to-olefins, and polyolefins, as well as supporting utility systems including air separation plants, power boilers, circulating water systems, and tank farms. Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co., Ltd. (SNEC) serves as the main contractor, being responsible for the coal-to-methanol section; Sinopec Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. (SEI) is in charge of the olefin section, while Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co., Ltd. (SSEC) is responsible for the three polyolefin units.