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The History of Donghua Technology and the Production of Ethylene Glycol from Syngas / Author/Source: Donghua Technology ECEC / Date: 2022-07-06 / Views: 17. A few days ago, the fifth edition of the “Ten Years of Excellence: Contributing to a Stronger Country” event for showcasing outstanding stories from central state-owned enterprises, organized by the Public Relations Bureau of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, entered its dissemination phase. Out of the 23 outstanding stories submitted by China Chemical, 11 were selected after screening and displayed on People’s Daily Online. Since the launch of this initiative, Sinochem has attached great importance to it, planned it carefully, and actively organized its affiliated enterprises to submit entries. It has delved into the stories of progress made by the company in its pursuit of high-quality development, highlighting Sinochem’s commitment to fulfilling its economic, political, and social responsibilities, as well as its outstanding contributions and remarkable achievements in areas such as ensuring national security and people’s well-being, promoting economic and social development, and advancing technological innovation. Today’s article is \"The History of Donghua Technology and the Production of Ethylene Glycol from Syngas\", submitted by Donghua Company. Chemistry is closely related to people’s lives; chemical products can be found in every aspect of people’s daily activities, including clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Taking ethylene glycol as an example, as an important chemical raw material, it is primarily used in the production of polyester, antifreeze, and other products, and is widely applied in industries such as clothing, packaging, electronics, healthcare, construction, and the automotive sector. In recent years, with the rapid development of the domestic polyester industry, China has become the world’s largest consumer of ethylene glycol, boasting a huge market scale. Currently, the production routes for ethylene glycol are mainly divided into petrochemical and non-petrochemical routes. On a global scale, the methods used for synthesizing ethylene glycol generally follow the petrochemical route. As world oil resources become increasingly scarce, developing new ethylene glycol production processes has become an urgent task ； Our country is relatively short of oil resources; therefore, finding an economical route to synthesize ethylene glycol that does not rely on petrochemical processes is also a topic of active research in the industry. Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., which is part of China National Chemical Engineering Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “Donghua Technology”), has made persistent efforts to address this challenge, delivering a satisfactory solution. In 2009, Donghua Technology and Japan’s Takakagaku Co., Ltd. began to work together on the development of ethylene glycol technology. Building on laboratory research, they carried out a pilot-scale production project with a capacity of thousands of tons in Taizhou, Zhejiang, and achieved success in this pilot project from the first attempt. Since then, Donghua Technology has begun to gradually master ethylene glycol technology, becoming one of the entities that possess the technology for producing ethylene glycol from syngas. In 2011, Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd. expressed the need to use the off-gases from calcium carbide furnaces for the synthesis of ethylene glycol. Calcium carbide off-gas contains a high level of carbon monoxide and has a complex composition; converting it into effective syngas is a challenge in the industry. Nevertheless, the Donghua people were not afraid. In July 2011, the two parties signed a contract, and in less than two years, Donghua University boldly broke away from conventional thinking and made breakthroughs in both the purification of calcium carbide off-gases and the technology for producing ethylene glycol from syngas. In January 2013, the successful production of high-quality ethylene glycol products was achieved, creating a miracle in the industry and attracting significant attention from peers both at home and abroad. The successful commissioning of Xinjiang Tianye’s Phase I project, which involves the production of ethylene glycol from the exhaust gases of 50,000 tons per year of calcium carbide furnaces, represents the first successful industrial application of the syngas-based ethylene glycol production technology in China. In 2014, it was thanks to the ethylene glycol technology and its application projects that Donghua Technology’s total contract value for that year exceeded 10 billion. Such large-scale EPC turnkey projects have enhanced Donghua Technology’s professional capabilities and operational capacity, resulting in a qualitative leap in the scale and technical level of each project undertaken by the company. Since then, Donghua Technology has gained the confidence to develop technologies for producing ethylene glycol from syngas, and has also recognized the huge potential inherent in the ethylene glycol market. Donghua Technology focuses on technological development, has begun to conduct in-depth research in the field of producing ethylene glycol from syngas and to expand its market presence; it has been involved in the design and overall construction of numerous large-scale ethylene glycol projects both domestically and internationally. On May 31, 2018, the 300,000-ton/year ethylene glycol production project at Qianxi Chemical, which was constructed under the general contract of Donghua Technology, achieved successful commissioning with the production of high-quality ethylene glycol; it was the largest coal-based ethylene glycol production facility of its kind in the country at that time. This project primarily utilizes the abundant coal resources in Qianxi County, Guizhou Province, and employs the pressurized coal gasification process as well as the technology for producing ethylene glycol from syngas. Upon completion, the project will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of high-quality ethylene glycol, along with some by-products, making it the largest coal-based ethylene glycol production facility in southwestern China. On November 24, 2019, Xinjiang Tianying Petrochemical’s ethylene glycol plant, the world’s first project to produce ethylene glycol from natural gas, passed a 72-hour performance test on the first attempt. Using natural gas as raw material, the project produces polyester-grade ethylene glycol through natural gas oxygen-based non-catalytic partial oxidation technology, PSA syngas purification and separation technology, as well as advanced syngas-to-ethylene glycol production techniques. This project has developed a complete process route for producing ethylene glycol from natural gas, indicating that this technology is now fully mature and ready for large-scale application in regions rich in natural gas and shale gas around the world. It represents an important milestone in the technology of producing ethylene glycol from syngas, and is also one of the key projects managed by Donghua Technology. On August 24, 2020, the 600,000-ton/year ethylene glycol production facility of Phase I of Xinjiang Tianye, the largest coal-based ethylene glycol plant built in China at that time and designed by Donghua Technology, also began to produce high-quality polyester-grade ethylene glycol with a purity of 99.96%, meeting the highest standards required by the polyester industry for ethylene glycol. On April 28, 2022, the commissioning ceremony was held for the ethylene glycol production facility of Phase 1 of the demonstration project on the utilization of coal in various ways to produce new chemical materials, with a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year, undertaken by Donghua Technology for Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd. As the constructors of the world’s largest coal chemical project currently under construction, Donghua Technology and all the other parties involved worked together in close cooperation to create this miracle of coal chemistry in the Maowusu Desert, offering a joint gift to celebrate the *successful convening of the Party congress. At present, this syngas-to-ethylene glycol technology holds a 70% market share in the domestic market; its various performance indicators exceed the **established industry benchmarks, giving it an advantage over other domestic and international competitors. To date, over 20 sets of this technology have been licensed out, resulting in technology transfer contracts worth approximately 200 million yuan; meanwhile, it has contributed to project contracts worth nearly 30 billion yuan. Over the years of development, the engineering and technology fields in which Donghua Technology operates have evolved from initially focusing on the production of small-scale nitrogen-based fertilizers to covering a wide range of areas such as large-scale and super-large-scale nitrogen fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers, potassium fertilizers, petrochemicals, coal chemicals, fine chemicals, and new materials. The company has developed numerous process technologies that are leading in China, including those for producing paints, titanium dioxide, sulfuric acid, phosphate fertilizers, methylene chloride, melamine, synthetic ammonia, methanol, and ethylene glycol. Step by step, Donghua Technology has never stopped advancing on the path of innovation and creation. In order to continuously enhance the market competitiveness of its ethylene glycol technology, Donghua Technology focuses on carrying out technological innovations in areas such as improving product quality, reducing construction costs, lowering consumption of raw materials and utility resources, ensuring long-term stable operation of the facilities, and minimizing emissions. The technology for producing ethylene glycol from syngas has reached an advanced stage. The raw materials available include coal, natural gas, calcium carbide furnace gas, coke oven gas, or converter gas – various types of hydrocarbon-based industrial waste gases. Comprehensive services are offered in areas such as catalysts, engineering solutions, by-product management, and energy savings. At the same time, efforts are made to develop products related to the ethylene glycol industry chain, such as oxalic acid, glyoxalic acid, oxamide, and polyglycolic acid, in order to enhance the overall competitiveness of this technology. Donghua Technology continues to refine its work in syngas-based ethylene glycol production technology and engineering optimization, remaining at the forefront of the industry. In the future, Donghua Technology will enhance its corporate innovation capabilities through policy guidance, mechanism innovation, investment in research and development, platform construction, and talent development. It will develop more key technologies, continue to focus on the traditional chemical industry, actively expand into the fields of environmental protection, new chemical materials, and emerging materials, and undertake more high-quality projects.