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Progress in the commissioning of Zhong’an United Coal Chemical’s 1.7 million tons per year coal-to-olefins project / Author/Source: Huahua Network – Coal Chemicals / Date: May 13, 2019 / Clicks: 32. On May 8, further good news came regarding the commissioning of Zhong’an United Coal Chemical Co., Ltd.’s project for producing 1.7 million tons per year of methanol and related olefins; the extrusion granulation unit of the polypropylene production line was successfully tested for the first time, producing qualified particles. On December 27, 2018, the 350,000 tons per year polypropylene plant of the Zhong’an United Coal Chemicals project was completed. The polypropylene plant uses propylene as the raw material and ethylene as a copolymerizing monomer, and employs Sinopec’s second-generation loop process technology for polypropylene production; together with the polyethylene plant, it is one of the main product-production units in the Zhongan United Coal Chemical Project. On May 13, 2017, the 350,000-ton/year polypropylene plant of Anzhong, which was under the general contract of SEI, officially commenced construction. Since May, as the commissioning of the Zhongan United coal chemical plant entered a critical phase, good news has kept coming in from the site of the commissioning work. Following the successful commissioning of the extrusion granulation unit in the polypropylene plant and the successful ignition of the auxiliary combustion chamber in the MTO plant, good news came again from the polyethylene plant on the 10th: the commissioning of a domestically produced large-scale extrusion granulation unit capable of producing 350,000 tons of polyethylene per year was also successful. The Zhongan United polyethylene plant utilizes domestic technology for extrusion granulation; its equipment represents China’s first set of polyethylene extrusion granulation units with an annual production capacity of 350,000 tons. It is also the largest such unit manufactured in China to date, and truly qualifies as a vital asset for the country. Whether the unit’s trial operation is successful or not serves not only as a test of the technical skills of Zhong’an United’s team, but also as a test of the first application of domestically produced 350,000-ton extrusion granulation units in large-scale polyethylene plants. To this end, Zhongan United attaches great importance to it, organizing technical staff to carefully prepare a commissioning plan. Experts from Sinopec’s similar plants are invited for on-site guidance, and employees who won gold and silver awards in Sinopec’s polyethylene plant skills competition last year are selected to lead the on-site operation team, ensuring the successful commissioning of the unit. On January 23, 2019, the handover ceremony for the MTO/OCC units of China Anlian Coal Chemical Co., Ltd.’s project for producing 1.7 million tons per year of methanol and related olefins was held. The last major production unit of this project completed its construction tasks successfully, transitioning from the construction phase to the preparation phase for operation; this marked the point at which all of the project’s major production units entered the commissioning stage. On December 27, 2018, the 350,000-ton/year polypropylene plant of China An Coal Chemical’s coal-to-methanol and olefin conversion project was successfully completed, with SEI of Sinopec Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. acting as the general contractor ； On December 26, the purification unit for the project, constructed by Sinopec Nanjing Engineering, was successfully completed and handed over to CCCC ； On November 28, the air separation unit of the project was fully completed; it has now entered the phase of joint commissioning and trial operation with feedstock introduced ； On November 20, the polyethylene unit of the Zhongan Coal Chemical Project, which was constructed under the general contract of Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company, was completed and handed over ； On October 31, the methanol synthesis and sulfur recovery units of the Zhongan Coal Chemical Project, which were under the general contracting of Sinopec Nanjing Engineering Company, were successfully completed by China Communications Construction ； On the morning of October 28, the gasification unit of Zhongan Coal Chemical, constructed by Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Company, was handed over. It utilizes the original patent developed by Sinopec and East China University of Science and Technology, namely the \"Single-nozzle cold-wall pulverized coal pressurized gasification technology\" (SE-Eastern Furnace). 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 core process of the project utilizes S-MTO patented technology owned by Sinopec, while the gasification unit employs SE-Oriental furnace technology also owned by Sinopec. Using coal from the Zhujixi mine as raw material, methanol and converted olefins (LDPE/PP), ethylene glycol (MEG) and other products are produced. Sinopec Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. is responsible for the overall management of the design, procurement, and construction of the MTO/OCC and PP units in this project, as well as six supporting facilities including the control room and 110-kilovolt substation ； Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co., Ltd. is responsible for the design and construction of the gasification unit for the contracted project ； Design and construction of air separation units, purification units, and circulating water systems for Sinopec’s Nanjing engineering contracting project. As a base for the automotive and home appliance industries, Anhui has a strong demand for raw materials used in the production of olefin-based chemical products. In the future, the addition of Zhongan United Chemical Products will help fill the gap in demand for chemical raw materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene in the surrounding markets.