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Progress on the Construction of the 500,000 tons/year coal-based ethanol project at Yushen Energy Chemicals. Author/Source: Coal Chemical Engineering 114 Forum. Date: May 28, 2021. Clicks: 18. On May 26, the final section of wall panels was installed in the main cooling tank of the distillation tower system for the 80,000 cubic meter per hour air separation unit of this project, which is under the general contracting of Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co., Ltd. Meanwhile, the lower column of the distillation tower, the middle section of the condenser-evaporator assembly, the upper column, and the crude argon tower within the cooling tank were also installed one after another recently. This marks the completion of the installation of the main cryogenic tank itself as well as all the major equipment inside it; the goal was achieved 6 days ahead of the third-phase schedule. The main cooling tank of this device is about 71 meters tall, weighs approximately 450 tons, and has six layers in total. The total height of the distillation tower is nearly 69 meters, its total weight is about 234 tons, and its diameter is around 4.8 meters. The main equipment inside the container was lifted in four phases; a 450-ton crawler crane was used as the primary lifting device, with a 130-ton truck crane assisting with the lifting process. During installation, all parties involved worked closely together and made thorough preparations, while strictly controlling safety and quality, which enabled the lifting work to be completed successfully. It is reported that the prefabrication of the main pipeline inside the box began in April; approximately 30% of this prefabrication work has been completed, and piping installation will commence in the near future. It is reported that the project commenced construction in June 2020, with completion scheduled by the end of May 2022. The core ethanol production facility utilizes the dimethyl ether carbonylation method for ethanol synthesis, which was developed jointly by Yanchang Petroleum and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This method replaces the traditional process of producing ethanol through grain fermentation, thereby opening up new avenues for the clean utilization of coal resources. The Yushen 500,000 tons per year coal-based ethanol project of Yanchang Petroleum has an investment of 6.98 billion yuan, with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons of ethanol. It is located in the South Area of Qingshui Industrial Park, Yushen Industrial Park, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, covering an area of 1,365 mu. The construction scope includes a methanol complex (units such as coal unloading and storage, gasification unit, shift converter unit, purification unit, gas separation unit, methanol production unit, sulfur treatment unit, etc.), an ethanol plant (units such as dimethyl ether production, carbonylation, hydrogenation, separation, compression, heating furnaces, refrigeration stations, etc.), as well as new constructions for utility systems and auxiliary facilities; the design capacity is 1.22 million tons of coal to be converted per year.