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Latest Progress on the Phase II Project of Inner Mongolia HuiNeng Coal Power’s 1.6 Billion Cubic Meters of Coal-to-Natural Gas Production Capacity / Author/Source: CoalChemicalCustomer / Date: 2019-09-24 / Clicks: 52. The Phase II project of the coal-to-natural gas production facility owned by Inner Mongolia HuiNeng Coal Power Group, which has attracted significant attention from the industry, is under accelerated construction. It is understood that to date, the project has completed 310,000 cubic meters of earthwork excavation and backfilling, 110,000 cubic meters of concrete pouring, and the installation of over 8,000 tons of rebar, thus completing 30% to 40% of the civil engineering work. The coal-to-natural gas project of Inner Mongolia HuiNeng Coal and Electricity Group Company is the first coal-to-natural gas project in Inner Mongolia to receive approval from the National Development and Reform Commission. With an investment of 12 billion yuan, Phase II will increase the production capacity of coal-to-natural gas by 1.6 billion cubic meters, all of which will be liquefied. Operation is expected to begin in 2021; after that, the project is projected to generate annual sales revenue of 6.5 billion yuan and tax revenues of 900 million yuan, while also creating employment opportunities for 3,000 people. The main units include an air separation unit, a gasification unit, a shift and low-temperature methanol washing unit, a methane synthesis unit, a methane liquefaction unit, a thermal power plant, raw material storage and preparation facilities, a plant-wide flare, and a sulfur recovery unit. The facility will use the multi-nozzle opposed water-coal slurry gasification technology developed by East China University of Science and Technology to produce syngas. There are two gasifiers in operation with one as a backup, and the effective gas production capacity of each gasifier is 210,000 standard cubic meters per hour. By then, over 6 million tons of coal will be converted each year, producing 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas. For methane synthesis in this project, patented technologies and catalysts from the Danish company Topsoe are utilized, with a synthesis pressure of 5.32 megapascals and a temperature of 620 degrees Celsius – something that has not been seen before in any operating facilities worldwide. The air separation unit utilizes patented technologies and complete sets of equipment from the French company Air Liquide; its compression units are manufactured by the German company Mannesmann. High-temperature and high-pressure reaction systems are employed, and the size of the air separation unit is increased, thereby achieving energy savings and reduced consumption. The construction of this project is divided into two phases: Phase 1 involved an investment of around 7 billion yuan, and the plant began operations in October 2014, with all 400 million cubic meters of natural gas being liquefied. Phase 2 involves a natural gas liquefaction project (LNG); it is a capacity-based natural gas liquefaction facility. The planned investment for this phase is 120 billion yuan, and the construction will include natural gas purification, liquefaction, storage of liquefied natural gas, transportation, as well as related supporting facilities. This phase will also enable an additional production capacity of 1.6 billion cubic meters of coal-derived natural gas, all of which will be liquefied. The plant will be able to process 2.7 million Nm3 of natural gas per day, with operations expected to begin in 2021. It is reported that the first phase of HuiNeng’s coal-to-natural gas project, which features a production line capable of generating 400 million cubic meters of coal-derived gas per year as well as liquefying it, came online in 2014; to date, nearly 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been produced. In May 2018, the company invested another 12 billion yuan to start construction on the Phase II of the HuiNeng coal-to-natural gas project, with an annual production capacity of 1.2 billion cubic meters of coal-to-natural gas. Completion and operation of both phases were scheduled for 2021; once operational, the facility would be able to produce 1.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. This would allow the delivery of nearly 1 million tons of clean energy in the form of LNG to various parts of the country, thereby extending the company’s industrial chain. The coal-to-natural gas project of Inner Mongolia HuiNeng Coal and Electricity Group Company is located in the Shengyuan Coal Chemical Industry Base in Yijinhuoluo Banner, Ordos City. This project uses coal as raw material to produce synthetic natural gas and liquefied natural gas; it is the first demonstration project of coal-to-natural gas in China to be invested and built by a private enterprise.