The circulating hydrogen compressor of the ethanol production unit in the Yushen Ethanol Production Project has begun operating with oil as a lubricant

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The circulating hydrogen compressor in the ethanol production unit of Yushen Nenghua’s 500,000 tons/year coal-based ethanol project began to operate using oil as a lubricant. Author/Source: Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Yulin Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. Date: 2022-03-30. Views: 17. Recently, the first large-scale unit in this ethanol production unit – the circulating hydrogen compressor (C-301) – started operating with oil as a lubricant, and the process was successfully established from the very first attempt. It is reported that the oil circulation process for compressor equipment is carried out after the on-site installation of the compressor is completed and before the no-load test run; during this process, an auxiliary oil pump is started to flush all the oil pipelines except those used for lubricating the components of the compressor itself, in order to remove any residues such as rust and welding slag left over from the pipeline installation process, and thus prevent any abnormalities from occurring once the compressor starts operating. In response to this, the ethanol production unit of Yushen Nenghua Company carefully planned the necessary actions, worked closely with the technical staff from the design institute to develop a detailed work plan, and assigned dedicated personnel to monitor the construction progress throughout the process, ensuring that the oil transportation operations were carried out safely and in an orderly manner. The smooth operation of the oil circulation system for the hydrogen compressor in the ethanol plant not only laid a solid foundation for the individual testing of the large-scale units in this plant but also played a positive role in ensuring the successful commissioning of the entire plant later on. The Yushen 500,000 tons per year coal-based ethanol project is currently the largest project in the industrialization of coal-based ethanol technology. With a total investment of 6.98 billion yuan, it is located in the South Area of Qingshui Industrial Park within the Yushen Industrial Park in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. The project covers an area of 1,365 mu, and it utilizes coal-to-ethanol technology that was jointly developed by Yanchang Petroleum and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and for which independent intellectual property rights exist. The project is scheduled to be fully completed on May 30, 2022. The construction scope includes a methanol complex (devices such as coal unloading and storage facilities, gasification units, shift reactors, purification units, gas separation units, methanol production units, and sulfur treatment units), an ethanol plant (units including dimethyl ether production, carbonylation processes, hydrogenation units, separation systems, compression equipment, heating furnaces, and refrigeration stations), 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. Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (Beiyou Engineering) has been awarded a total EPC contract value of 3.78 billion yuan, covering auxiliary facilities and plant-wide system projects, as well as process units and water treatment systems; it is also responsible for providing overall project management services for this initiative. As the EPC general contractor for the gasification unit of this project, Aerospace Engineering Company signed a general contract with Yushen Energy Chemical Company worth 590 million yuan; the project utilizes two 2,000-ton capacity aerospace furnaces.