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The 500,000-ton coal-based ethanol project of Yanchang Petroleum has been completed. Author/Source: Huahua Network – Coal Chemical Industry. Date: July 1, 2022. Clicks: 20. On June 30, the 500,000-ton per year coal-based ethanol project of Yanchang Petroleum in Yushen Industrial Park, with a total investment of 6.98 billion yuan, was completed in Yulin City. Using coal as raw material, this project produces anhydrous ethanol and other chemical products; it is capable of processing 1.5 million tons of low-grade coal per year. It represents an industrial scale-up project by Yanchang Petroleum following the successful implementation of the world’s first 100,000 tons per year coal-based ethanol technology demonstration project, and it is currently the largest coal-based ethanol project in the world. This project utilizes the internationally leading DMTE technology for the carbonylation of dimethyl ether to produce ethanol, which was jointly developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yanchang Petroleum and boasts independent intellectual property rights. It represents a completely new, environment-friendly technological route in the global coal chemical industry, adding to the existing four main pathways of coal-to-olefins, coal-to-oil, coal-to-natural gas, and ethylene glycol production. According to experts, based on the ratio of 3 tons of grain required to produce 1 ton of ethanol, once the 500,000-ton/year coal-based ethanol project in Yulin is put into operation, it will enable the saving of 1.5 million tons of grain used as raw material for bioethanol each year. This amount is equivalent to 65% of Yulin’s annual grain production (2.3 million tons on average). It is known that ethanol is recognized worldwide as an excellent additive for gasoline, as well as an important basic chemical. It can be used to produce acetaldehyde, chloroethanol, and other substances, and it serves as a precursor for intermediates in the manufacture of dyes, detergents, and more than 300 other products. At present, ethanol production worldwide relies mainly on biomass materials such as grains. However, given China’s situation of a large population and limited land resources, grain-based ethanol is not suitable for widespread use. Meanwhile, the energy structure dominated by coal creates broad market prospects for coal-based ethanol. The Yushen coal-based ethanol project is located in the Yushen Industrial Zone of Yulin City. With a total investment of 6.98 billion yuan, the project was approved for implementation on November 1, 2018; construction began on June 6, 2020. It was completed on June 30 of this year, and trial operations are scheduled to begin within the same year. A responsible official from Yanchang Petroleum said that in the next step, the company will build on its 500,000 tons per year coal-based ethanol production facility to actively expand its downstream industrial chain, developing high-value specialty chemicals such as methyl methacrylate and polyglycolic acid, thereby promoting the advancement, diversification, and low-carbon development of the coal chemical industry. The project commenced in full on June 6, 2020, with Beiyou Engineering Company undertaking the EPC general contracting work for the process units and associated utility systems. The construction scope includes a methanol complex (units such as coal unloading and storage facilities, gasification units, shift conversion units, 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 construction 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 assigned 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-class aerospace furnaces.