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Progress on the Construction of Xinjiang Tianye’s 600,000-ton/year Coal-to-Ethylene Glycol Plant Author/Source: Date: 2018-04-23 Clicks: 11 Recently, the foundation treatment work for storage facilities No. 2 and No. 4 of the coal storage yard associated with Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd.’s first-phase project to produce ethylene glycol from syngas at a rate of 1 million tons per year – specifically the 600,000-ton/year ethylene glycol production unit – was completed. These facilities have now been handed over for civil engineering work, marking the entry of this project into its actual construction phase, with the construction of standardized coal storage facilities capable of holding 450,000 tons of coal. The coal storage facility designed to support Xinjiang Tianye’s 600,000-ton coal-to-ethylene glycol project covers an area of approximately 160 mu. It is structured as 4 relatively independent coal storage zones, with one coal storage shed per zone. Each shed features a grid structure whose longitudinal length is 220 meters, the span is 100 meters, and the total height of the grid structure is around 45 meters or more. The maximum capacity of this storage system is 450,000 tons of coal, making it the largest standardized coal storage facility owned by Tianye Group to date. According to the relevant officials, when designing the dry coal storage facility, the planning team gave full consideration to the safety and environmental sustainability of raw coal storage. In line with standard construction requirements, various aspects such as zoning, structure, loading and unloading processes, mixing, transportation, lighting, ventilation, and natural light were taken into account. Systems such as dual-track material handling, automatic coal quality testing, intelligent control, and safety interlocks were also implemented to create a highly standardized and intelligent coal storage facility. To date, for Tianye’s 600,000-ton coal-to-ethylene glycol project, approximately 120,000 cubic meters of soil have been excavated for foundation treatment of the coal storage area; nearly 100,000 cubic meters of Gobi filler have been laid, and the area subjected to dynamic compaction amounts to 46,000 square meters. The foundation treatment for the remaining coal sheds No. 1 and No. 3 is nearing completion. As planned, the installation of grid structures for the four coal sheds will begin on June 15, and it is expected that the entire coal storage area will be fully operational by the end of October 2018. To date, the equipment procurement rate for Tianye’s 600,000-ton coal-based ethylene glycol project has exceeded 92.8%, with all key equipment and those requiring a long lead time having been ordered by the end of the previous year. By May, civil construction, equipment installation, and EPC auxiliary works will be carried out in parallel. The biggest task for the preparatory team in 2018 is to ensure that the boiler is started up and put into operation by November 20, while also keeping the overall project schedule on track, in order to lay a solid foundation for achieving the overall goal of having the project operational by October 2019. The first phase of Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd.’s project to produce ethylene glycol from syngas at a capacity of 1 million tons per year involves a facility with an output of 600,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol. The total investment in this project amounts to 799,721.60 million yuan. The construction site is located in the Shihu Tan New Materials Industrial Park (147th Regiment) in Shihezi, Xinjiang. Construction began in August 2017, with completion and operation expected by October 2019. In October 2017, the project’s gasification technology sector entered into a contract with Shanxi Yangmei Chemical Machinery (Group) Co., Ltd. for four sets of 6.5MPa Jinhua furnaces model 3.0; the core process makes use of a patented technology for producing ethylene glycol from high-purity chemical synthesis gas. Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd. currently has a production capacity of 250,000 tons of ethylene glycol per year from syngas; 50,000 tons from the first phase and 200,000 tons from the second phase, with these capacities being put into operation gradually. The second-phase project is located in the North Industrial Zone of Shihezi, Xinjiang, and involves the construction of facilities for producing 200,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol and 170,000 tons per year of BDO, utilizing the off-gases from calcium carbide furnaces in the Xinjiang Tianye Chemical Industry Park as raw materials for comprehensive utilization.