The first air separation unit of Yulin Chemical, belonging to Shaanxi Coal Group, successfully produced qualified oxygen and nitrogen products during its trial operation

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The first air separation unit at Yulin Chemical, belonging to Shaanxi Coal Group, successfully completed its trial operation, producing qualified oxygen and nitrogen products. Author/Source: Yulin Chemical Company, Shaanxi Coal Group. Date: June 26, 2022. Clicks: 21. At 13:19 on June 21, the air separation and thermal power department of Yulin Chemical Company successfully tested its first air separation unit, which produced qualified oxygen and nitrogen products; this marks another milestone achieved by the company. To ensure the successful commissioning of the first air separation unit and the production of qualified products from the very beginning, the company placed great emphasis on this task and took proactive measures. It organized several specialized meetings with relevant departments, carried out numerous inspections, coordinated to resolve various issues, and maintained strict controls over safety and quality. At the same time, the project team carefully identified the key points and risk factors during the commissioning process, meticulously formulated commissioning and isolation plans, and arranged various tasks in accordance with the commissioning schedule. It successfully completed all the preliminary tasks, including the final verification steps, the startup of the turbine, joint testing of the unit, purging for airtightness, cooling of the cold box, and filling with perlite, thus laying a solid foundation for the successful commissioning of the first air separation unit. At present, this air separation unit is operating smoothly, and all parameters of the oxygen and nitrogen products meet the design requirements. Taking this as an opportunity, the project team will redouble its efforts and, with a solid work ethic, accelerate the progress of all subsequent tasks, striving to achieve all the company’s goals and objectives. It is reported that the project is equipped with 3 sets of air separation units with a capacity of 100,000 Nm3/h, which are primarily responsible for supplying instrument air, process air, as well as nitrogen and oxygen at various pressure levels to the production facilities. The device features advanced design parameters and processing technologies, and boasts reliable operation, ease of use, good safety performance, and easy control. It employs the widely used in industrial applications cryogenic air separation technology, comprising an air compressor unit system, a pre-cooling system, a molecular sieve system, a heat exchange system, a pressurized turbine expander system, and a distillation system. The 15 million tons per year demonstration project for the clean and efficient conversion of coal into various products, operated by Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd., is located in the Qingshui Coal Chemistry Industrial Park within the Yulin Yushen Industrial Park. The investment in this project amounts to 26.2 billion yuan, and it will be constructed in two phases and four stages. Phase 1 of the project is divided into two stages: Stage 1 involves the construction of an ethylene glycol plant with an annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons. The site area for this phase is approximately 4.4 million square meters, and the total investment required is around 26.5 billion yuan. It is currently the largest coal-based ethylene glycol production facility under construction in the world. In the second phase, projects for the production of 5.6 million tons per year of methanol, 2 million tons per year of olefins, and related deep-processing facilities will be constructed. Phase II of the project focuses on coal pyrolysis and is also divided into two stages. The first stage involves an industrial demonstration facility for the pyrolysis of 1.2 million tons per year of pulverized coal and the deep processing of 500,000 tons per year of coal tar. In the second stage, the scale of pyrolysis is increased to 15 million tons, and the coal tar industry chain is expanded to produce downstream products derived from aromatics and arylenes.