Latest progress on the construction of Anhui Zhongan United’s 1.7 million-ton coal-to-olefins project

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Latest Progress on the Construction of Anhui Zhongan United’s 1.7 million-ton coal-to-olefins project Author/Source: Date: 2018-01-22 Clicks: 23 On January 19, the degassing tank for Zhongan United’s polyethylene plant was successfully installed in place. The installation of this large-scale equipment represents another challenging task in terms of large-scale equipment installation that the project construction team has managed to accomplish, following the successful installation of the reactor for this facility a few days earlier. The degassing chamber arrived at the site on December 6 last year, and work such as insulation was carried out on the ground to prepare for the timely lifting of the equipment. This degassing chamber is 47 meters long and weighs 275 tons; it needs to be lifted to a concrete frame at a height of nearly 50 meters for installation, with the lifting height reaching 100 meters. This is the heaviest equipment lift carried out on site to date, presenting great difficulties and high safety risks. To ensure the smooth completion of the installation work for the degassing chamber, the project contractor conducted thorough analysis of the equipment lifting process and developed a detailed construction plan. Before carrying out the lifting operations, all the conditions required for such operations were checked one by one, which laid a solid foundation for the successful lifting of the degassing chamber. The first large-scale equipment for the polyethylene plant was successfully lifted. On January 15, the reactor for the polyethylene plant in the Zhongan United Coal Chemicals project was installed in place; this marked the first time that a large-scale piece of equipment for this plant was lifted. With this, the construction of the polyethylene plant is now entering the equipment installation phase. The reactor is a key piece of equipment in the polyethylene plant; it is 43 meters long, 5 meters in diameter, and weighs over 380 tons. At the lifting site, the construction workers worked together closely and followed the lifting plan meticulously, enabling the successful lifting of the reactor in just one attempt. The polyethylene plant of Zhongan United Coal Chemical Industry has a designed production capacity of 350,000 tons per year. It utilizes the SGPE gas-phase polyethylene technology provided by Sinopec Technology & Development Corporation; using ethylene as raw material, it produces full-density polyethylene resin with a density of 916–965 kg/m3. In accordance with the overall project control plan, this facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018, with trial operation starting in May 2019. Meeting on the Progress of Production Preparation for Utility Systems of the Project Held On January 17, a meeting on the progress of production preparation for the utility systems of the Zhong’an Coal Chemical Project was held on-site. The meeting heard reports on the company’s plans for project construction, production preparation, and commissioning of utility systems, as well as updates from the EPC contractor regarding issues encountered in design, procurement, and construction processes and the measures taken to address them. The experts present were divided into two specialized groups, one for utilities and the other for safety and environmental protection, and they held discussions and exchanges on the commissioning plan, offering targeted suggestions and opinions. The meeting emphasized that Zhong’an United, the Project Management Department, and all EPC units should, in accordance with the established timelines for various utility projects, strengthen process coordination and ensure that construction progress is accelerated while maintaining quality. It is necessary to strengthen communication and coordination with local authorities, expedite the relevant procedures, and lay a solid foundation for the overall commissioning of the utility systems. Installation of process pipelines for the air separation unit began on the morning of January 12th, with the work related to the installation of the process pipelines for the air separation unit in the Zhong’an project officially starting at that time. Before pipeline installation, the project owner carries out tasks such as inspections and verifications of the internal cleanliness of the pipelines, sealing of pipe ends, and provision of construction instructions, to carefully ensure that the conditions for pipeline installation are met. The total length of process pipelines in the air separation plant amounts to 220,000 inches, with a total length of 31 kilometers; among these, the length of process pipelines in the pipe galleries is 6.3 kilometers. To ensure the smooth progress of the process pipeline installation, the EPC contractor, Nanjing Engineering Company, carried out a series of preparatory tasks in advance, including urging the delivery of pipeline materials, purchasing anti-corrosion materials, conducting inspections for pipeline anti-corrosion measures, and checking the structure of the pipe racks. These efforts helped to create the necessary conditions for on-site installation, thus laying a foundation for the construction of the process pipelines. The 1.7 million tons per year coal-to-methanol and converted olefins project of Zhongan United Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. is a key construction project of Sinopec and Anhui Province. The project goal is to have the installation completed by the end of 2018, with the entire process operational by June 2019.