Progress on the construction of Sanning Chemical’s 600,000-ton coal-based ethylene glycol project

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Progress on the Construction of 600,000-ton/year Coal-based Ethylene Glycol Plant by Sanning Chemicals. Author/Source: Huahua Network – Coal Chemical Industry. Date: 2019-07-30. Clicks: 85. With equipment such as the DMO light-end removal tower and MF separation tower arriving one after another, the installation of equipment for the ethylene glycol production section of Hubei Sanning Co., Ltd.’s project aimed at adjusting the raw material structure for ammonia synthesis and producing 600,000 tons of ethylene glycol per year has begun. It is understood that the civil engineering work in this area is gradually coming to an end, with equipment installation set to begin on a large scale; various preparatory tasks are being carried out at full speed. Through the active efforts of the site personnel and the designated installation unit in organizing the unloading, all tower equipment was safely placed in their predetermined locations. Currently, the various installation units are carrying out the procurement, prefabrication, and installation of the ladder platforms on the towers they are working on, as well as the pipelines attached to these towers. On July 21, with the steel structure of the rake frame at the ethylene glycol gasification site being successfully placed on the designated supports, the construction of the main structures for both clarification tanks was completed. This marked a milestone achievement in the fabrication of custom-designed equipment for the ethylene glycol project, carried out by the plant’s maintenance workshop. It is understood that the two 2000-cubic-meter clarification tanks completed this time feature a structure with a large cone-shaped base and tip; each of them is supported by 72 steel columns. The construction techniques involved are complex, and there are many risk factors during the installation process. These tanks represent the largest standard-free equipment manufactured in this workshop to date. Faced with these challenges, the maintenance workers abandoned the scaffolding and arranged a 360-degree working platform along the edge of the base plate. This approach ensured that workers remained in a safe position throughout the operation, prevented the risk of falling from heights, and guaranteed that the tank components were always positioned on a stable platform during the inverted construction method. At the same time, by improving the welding process and adhering strictly to the requirements for pressure vessel manufacturing, argon-electric welding is employed to enable one-time single-sided welding, which not only ensures construction quality but also reduces the risks associated with working at heights during back-side welding. The appearance of the completed equipment and the quality of its welding were highly recognized by the supervision unit. On July 14, the first 3,000-ton gasifier in Hubei Sanning Co., Ltd.’s project to adjust the raw material structure for ammonia synthesis and produce 600,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol was successfully lifted into place in one go. The gasifier in this project utilizes Yankuang’s four-nozzle water-coal slurry gasification technology; there are 3 such gasifiers in total, with each one having a total weight of 370 tons, a height of 25 meters, and an inner diameter of 3.88 meters. The Hubei Sanning Ammonia Synthesis Raw Material Structure Adjustment and 600,000 tons/year Ethylene Glycol Production Project (Phase I) is based on the 520,000 tons/year ammonia production capacity of Sanning Company’s urea plant and Tiantian Company’s ammonia synthesis facility. Without increasing this capacity, the existing urea production plants that use bituminous coal as raw material and rely on atmospheric pressure batch fixed-bed gasifiers, atmospheric pressure desulfurization processes, and high-pressure ammonia synthesis, as well as the downstream urea and ammonium bicarbonate production facilities, are to be phased out. A new facility will be built using Shenhua’s high-quality coal as raw material to produce 400,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol and 520,000 tons per year of synthetic ammonia ； Using sulfur as raw material, 800,000 tons per year of industrial-grade sulfuric acid is produced. Hubei Sanning Chemical Co., Ltd. was formerly known as Zhijiang County Fertilizer Factory, and was established in 1970. In 1993, it was restructured as a state-controlled joint stock company on a pilot basis, and in 2001 its ownership was privatized through the \"two swaps\" reform. In 2007, it came under the control of Shanxi Jincheng Non-Coking Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd., a large state-owned enterprise.