Why have both major coal chemical projects in the Yulin area chosen this gasification technology?

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Why have both major coal chemical projects in the Yulin area chosen this gasification technology? Author/Source: Huahua Coal Chemical Industry Date: 2019-07-26 Clicks: 15 Recently, Colin Future Energy Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. reported that, following the selection of Colin’s patented dry powder gasification technology for the 1.8 million tons per year ethylene glycol production facility as part of the first phase of Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd.’s project on utilizing coal in various ways to produce new materials, this same technology has also been chosen for the gasification process in the 400,000 tons per year phase of Shaanxi Yulin Energy Group Co., Ltd.’s project to produce ethylene glycol from coal. These two messages indicate that in the Yulin region of Shaanxi, where water-coal slurry holds a dominant position, the Collin dry powder gasification process has emerged as a promising option and has gained recognition from coal chemical enterprises; its advantages in terms of economic efficiency, adaptability to different types of coal, and environmental protection are becoming increasingly evident. Gasification technology is the cornerstone of the modern coal chemical industry; it directly determines the success or failure of subsequent projects as well as the competitiveness of enterprises, which is why coal chemical companies are very cautious in choosing their gasification processes. Currently, the development of modern coal gasification technology focuses on fluidized-bed gasification, with two main technical approaches: slurry coal gasification and dry powder coal gasification. There are more than a dozen different types of fluidized-bed gasifiers in use both domestically and internationally. It is generally agreed in the industry that each process and furnace type has its own advantages, and companies choose the appropriate one based on the characteristics of their available coal resources. A meeting was held to discuss the process package for the ethylene glycol project of Shaanxi Yulin Energy Group Co., Ltd. Shen Yuncheng, the chief engineer of this project, said that the dry powder gasification process was chosen mainly due to its comprehensive advantages in terms of coal consumption, oxygen consumption, adaptability to different types of coal, and investment costs. The dry powder coal gasification process uses carbon dioxide as the carrier gas; whereas the effective gas content in the water-coal slurry gasification process is less than 80%, it can exceed 90% in the dry powder coal gasification process. In other words, for the same type of coal and the same gas production volume, the dry powder gasification process saves more than 10% in coal consumption and more than 15% in oxygen consumption compared to the coal slurry process. Moreover, dry coal powder gasification technology has strong adaptability to different types of coal; it achieves good gasification results, especially with low-quality coals that are high in ash content, high in ash melting point, and high in sulfur content. In contrast, coal slurry gasification technology requires high-quality coal with good slurry-forming properties. Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd. also chose the Corning dry powder gasification process after thorough investigation and careful consideration. The company’s representative stated that, based on the industrial application status of various dry powder gasification technologies currently available on the market and through extensive market research, they chose Collin Company’s technology. Compared with other dry powder gasification technologies, the overhead multi-nozzle design of the Colin gasifier offers significant advantages such as a uniform gasification flow field, a longer residence time for particles, a higher carbon conversion rate, a higher slag-to-ash ratio, and simpler operation during startup and shutdown. Additionally, the gasification process is more optimized, the equipment has a high degree of automation, it is safe and environmentally friendly, with low energy consumption. The components of the gasification unit are entirely domestically produced, resulting in a high overall cost-performance ratio. The review meeting for the 1.8 million-ton ethylene glycol production project at Shaanxi Coal Yulin Chemical, involving the Corin dry powder gasification technology, was held in Tianjin from March 25th to 28th. The project manager of Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd. made several trips to the south to conduct thorough inspections of the two Corin dry powder gasification units with a daily coal input of 1,500 tons, which are in operation at Guizhou Kaiyang Chemical Co., Ltd. The two gasification units in Kaiyang, Guizhou, are widely recognized in the industry as benchmarks for processing low-quality coal with high sulfur, high ash, and high carbon content. Since they were put into operation in 2012, they have been running steadily for 7 years now, and they possess unparalleled advantages in handling such coal – they are truly experts at dealing with difficult-to-process coal. Last year, a random change in coal type revealed the advantages of the Collin gasifier when dealing with high-quality coal, making it a model capable of handling both coarse and fine coals. This further strengthened the confidence of Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd. and Shaanxi Yulin Energy Group Co., Ltd. in adopting the Collin dry powder coal gasification process. The dry powder gasification unit produced by Guizhou Kaiyang Chemical Co., Ltd. According to Gao Xianguo, the chief engineer of Guizhou Kaiyang Chemical Co., Ltd., \"In 2018, due to a shortage of coal supply in the region of Guizhou, Kaiyang Chemical was forced to purchase some bituminous coal from the Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia areas.\" We were initially a bit concerned about changes in coal types, but after one year of operation, the Corin dry powder gasification furnace not only did not experience any problems due to these changes in raw coal, but it also performed even better in terms of cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and quality enhancement. After blending the two coal types in a 1:1 ratio, the coal and oxygen consumption of the gasification unit decreased significantly; the effective gas composition of the syngas exceeded 91%, and the carbon conversion rate was over 99%. Compared to using only local coal from Guizhou, the coal consumption per ton of ammonia is reduced by about 150 kilograms. For a synthetic ammonia plant with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons, this can result in savings of several tens of millions of yuan per year. ” The outstanding achievements of the Collin gasifier are closely tied to Collin Company’s over 40 years of expertise in gasification technology and its strong capabilities in process development. According to the person in charge of Collin Future Energy Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., the company’s predecessor was the former German Fuel Research Institute. As early as 1984, Collin built a 200MWth industrial demonstration plant at the Blackwater Pump Gasification Plant in Germany, where it tested nearly a hundred different types of coal feedstocks. This process led to the creation of a comprehensive database on coal gasification, as well as theoretical frameworks for using coal in gasification processes and strategies for mixing coal with ash. The company possesses an independent and complete set of intellectual property rights and industrial solutions in the field of dry powder coal gasification technology. To date, it holds 39 patent groups and 88 patents in organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, as well as in the United States, Germany, Canada, and China. It has also accumulated extensive experience in process research and development, design, manufacturing, and operation. “The cooperation with two coal chemical enterprises in the Yulin region is just the beginning; in the future, they will work together with users to promote the scale-up of advanced gasification technologies, and to develop demonstration projects for advanced technologies for the pyrolysis of low-grade coal and its efficient, diversified utilization, thereby contributing to the clean and efficient use of coal in China. ”The official said.