The industrial demonstration plant for coal-based ethanol selected as one of the top ten news stories in coal technology
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The industrial demonstration plant for coal-based ethanol was selected as one of the top ten news stories in coal technology. Author/Source: Date: 2018-01-12 Clicks: 12 Recently, the China Coal Industry Association and China Coal News jointly identified the top ten news stories in coal technology for the year 2017. “\"The world’s first industrial demonstration plant for coal-based ethanol produces qualified products\" was selected. On January 11, 2017, the industrial project for coal-based ethanol, which utilizes technology developed jointly by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group and represents China’s own independent intellectual property, was brought online – specifically, Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group’s 100,000 tons per year industrial demonstration project for producing ethanol from syngas – and qualified anhydrous ethanol was manufactured. This is another world-class achievement in China’s coal chemical industry, following technologies such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-ethylene glycol. It is highly beneficial for addressing China’s oil supply shortages, providing alternatives to petrochemical raw materials, improving the cleanliness of petroleum products, and achieving cleaner and more efficient use of coal. It provides key technical data and valuable experience for the future construction, production, and operation of large-scale industrial facilities, marking China’s emergence as the first country to possess the capability to design and build million-ton-scale large coal-based ethanol plants, thereby making it possible to widely deploy ethanol gasoline in China.
Following recent discussions on coal-to-oil, coal-to-olefins, and coal-to-ethylene glycol, the question arises as to whether coal-to-ethanol could become the next area of focus in coal gasification. Although this production method incurs higher costs compared to ethanol produced from grains, there will be no significant increase in China’s grain production areas. Meanwhile, rising demand for feedstock will lead to a rapid increase in grain consumption, thus limiting the output of ethanol produced from grains. Overcoming the technical challenges associated with coal-to-ethanol production and striving to reduce costs are therefore current priorities. It is hoped that this demonstration facility will contribute to the rapid development of this technology.
There are several routes for producing ethanol from coal; let’s take a look at their usage.