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Successful Ignition of Key Units in Shenhua’s Large-Scale Coal Chemical Project Worth Over 100 Billion Yuan Author/Source: Coal Chemical Industry 114 Forum Date: July 29, 2020 Clicks: 85 At 0:00 on July 25, Boiler No. 6 of the power generation unit in **Energy Group’s Yulin Circular Economy Coal Comprehensive Utilization Project was successfully ignited on the first attempt, marking the successful achievement of a key milestone for this project’s power generation system. This success lays a solid foundation for the subsequent pipeline cleaning and commissioning of the chemical processing units. The power generation capacity includes 2 high-temperature and high-pressure coal-fired boilers with a capacity of 480 t/h each, along with 1 100 MW air-cooled condensing generator set. High-efficiency dust removal, coal handling and storage, as well as desulfurization and denitrification systems are also installed to ensure compliance with ultra-low emission standards. For this boiler startup, pulverized coal was used as the initial fuel, and plasma ignition was employed. A direct current power supply was used to ionize the continuously supplied compressed air, generating a high-temperature flame that ignited the pulverized coal inside the burner for combustion in the furnace. To ensure a successful first ignition of the boiler, the company’s project team, while making every effort to maintain the safe and stable operation of the existing production facilities, broke away from the traditional approach of assigning personnel based on their specific specialties. Adopting a talent strategy that emphasizes multiple skills per employee, they assigned 10 experienced workers and 6 new employees to work together in a mentorship framework. Together, they analyzed the system on-site, created process flow diagrams, and worked on drafting pipeline purging plans, operating procedures, and operation cards. During the project construction process, the project supervisor instructed the team members to pay close attention to the key milestones, sequentially carrying out tasks such as quality inspection of pipe welding, gas-tightness testing of pipes, one-by-one testing of 3,020 points on each boiler, testing of 482 valves, trial operation of 127 motors, trial operation of equipment in various systems, calibration of boiler air volume, tests of the power plant, acid cleaning of boilers, pressure testing, introduction of materials for the utility systems, as well as adjustments related to the three inspections and four determinations and logical interlock functions. All these efforts provided a solid guarantee for the successful ignition of the boilers on the first attempt. The Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Coal Comprehensive Utilization Project (Phase I) is a facility for producing 1.8 million tons of methanol per year from coal, along with 400,000 tons of ethylene glycol per year via syngas production. The total investment in this project is 13.975 billion yuan, and it processes 4.39 million tons of coal annually. It constitutes a key demonstration project for advanced coal processing under the 13th Five-Year Plan. It is understood that the first-phase project of the Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Coal Comprehensive Utilization Project is a preliminary phase of this project (the CTC project). It also serves as a facility for producing methanol raw materials to support the already completed Shenhua Shaanxi Methanol Downstream Processing Project (SSMTO). The construction scope includes the production of 1.8 million tons per year of methanol along with 400,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol. The facility comprises various process units such as air separation, coal gasification, shift reaction, acidic gas removal, methanol synthesis, sulfur recovery, and ethylene glycol production, along with the associated utility systems and auxiliary facilities. Once completed, it will enable integrated production and management with the SSMTO project. It is reported that General Electric (GE)’s high-efficiency water-cooled coal slurry gasification technology has been selected for the project, in order to promote the clean, comprehensive, and efficient utilization of coal. The project utilizes 5 gasification furnaces of the single-series type, with a coal feeding rate of 3,100 tons per day on a dry basis, operating in a slurry-cooled process; the pressure level is 6.5 MPa. These furnaces are equipped to produce 1.8 million tons of methanol per year (for olefin production), as well as 400,000 tons of ethylene glycol and other high-value downstream products. The Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Coal Comprehensive Utilization Project (referred to as the CTC Project) was officially approved by the **National Development and Reform Commission on March 16, 2015** (Document No. FGNY [2015] 508). It is, to date, the coal chemical project with the largest total investment in the world; the total investment for the project amounts to 120 billion yuan.