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The lock hopper, the first piece of equipment in the gasification unit of Phase I of the technical upgrade project for Qilu No.1 Chemical Plant, was successfully lifted into place. Author/Source: Yangmei Chemical Co., Ltd. Date: 2022-03-13 Clicks: 13 At 9:17 a.m. on March 11, the first device in the gasification unit of Phase I of the technical upgrade project for Qilu No.1 Chemical Plant’s 45,000 Nm3/h syngas production facility was lifted as scheduled, and it was successfully placed in position at 10:30 a.m. This lockbox has dimensions of ∅2.4×7.046 meters and a weight of 34 tons; it is installed at a height of 12.5 meters on the gasification furnace framework. A 400-ton crawler crane is used as the main lifting device, with a 130-ton crawler crane serving as an auxiliary crane, to lift it into place in one go from above the 41.5-meter-high concrete framework of the gasification unit. It is reported that starting from today and throughout the May Day holiday, various equipment for the gasification furnace will be lifted in stages. The successful lifting of this lockbox marks the entry into the lifting phase for the large-scale equipment of the gasification unit in Phase 1 of the technical upgrade project for Qilu No.1 Chemical’s 45,000 Nm3/h syngas plant; it also provides experience and a solid foundation for the lifting of the lower section of the 224.8-ton gasifier in subsequent steps. Zibo Qilu No.1 Fertilizer Co., Ltd. of Yangmei Group produces synthetic ammonia and urea using coal-based syngas. Its current production capacity is as follows: 180,000 tons per year of ammonia in total (of which 140,000 tons are liquid ammonia and 40,000 tons are methanol), 210,000 tons per year of urea, 210,000 tons per year of butyl octanol, 2.32 million tons per year of steam, and 86.4 million kW·h per year of electricity generation. Its predecessor was the First Fertilizer Plant of Qilu Branch of Sinopec Corporation; it was established in July 1969 and came online for operation in December 1972. It was China’s first domestic medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer plant that produced synthetic ammonia and urea from refinery off-gases. In March 2008, Qilu Yihua underwent a strategic restructuring with Shanxi Yangquan (Coal Industry) Group Co., Ltd., becoming part of the Yangmei Group. At present, Qilu Yihua’s production process uses smokeless lump coal as raw material and relies on the traditional fixed-bed batch gas production method; the scale of production is small. The fertilizer production facility ceased operations on July 12, 2017. It was a gas generation and purification unit designed to support the production of butyl and octyl alcohols, and it utilized the traditional fixed-bed batch gas production method along with wet desulfurization processes. This approach results in high production costs, as well as significant safety and environmental issues. Although the company continues to invest in improvements, certain problems remain difficult to resolve due to the inherent limitations of the existing technology, posing a serious threat to the company’s survival. Moreover, Shandong Province has required that 90% of fixed-bed batch gasifiers with a diameter of less than Φ3000 be phased out by 2022; therefore, it is urgent to carry out technical upgrades to Qilu Yihua’s 45,000 Nm3/h syngas production facility. The proposed project uses coal as raw material. It replaces the existing fixed-bed batch gas production process with pressurized gasification of coal slurry (using Beijing Qingchuang Jinhua Technology Co., Ltd.’s coal slurry water-cooled wall waste boiler gasifier – Jinhua Furnace 3.0 technology), and replaces the current wet desulfurization and PsA carbon removal processes with low-temperature methanol washing for purification. For the recovery of acidic gases, the wet acid production method is employed instead of the current batch sulfur melting recovery process. Additionally, two 85 t/h boilers that burn a mixture of waste gases are to be converted into circulating fluidized bed coal boilers that also burn a small amount of waste gases from storage areas and process emissions; the corresponding dust removal, desulfurization, and denitrification equipment will also be modified, while the 6 MW steam turbine generator set will remain in use. The newly installed production units include: an air separation unit, a water-coal slurry gasification unit, a CO conversion unit, a low-temperature methanol washing purification unit, a PSA hydrogen production unit, and a sulfur recovery unit. The existing ammonia synthesis, urea production, and Units 1# and 2# waste heat recovery units were removed, while the existing coal storage and transportation systems, Units 3# and 4# waste heat recovery units, circulating water systems, chemical water treatment systems, sewage treatment systems, and power transformation systems were modified and put to use. As a result, an effective synthetic gas production capacity of 45,000 Nm3/h was achieved.