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A New Green Chemical Industry City Rises in the Desert Author/Source: Date: 2022-11-14 Clicks: 7 Entering the Shihu Tan New Materials Industrial Park, located on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert, one can see lush groves of trees everywhere; 10 different species of trees such as tamarisk, saxaul, fire tree, and golden leaf elm thrive there. Entering the production workshop of the plant, the clean and tidy equipment as well as the bright factory premises change people’s perception of coal chemical enterprises. All of this is made possible by the determination and actions of the first company to establish itself in the park – Xinjiang Tianye Group Huihe New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tianye Huihe) – to pursue a development path for coal chemical industry that is green and low-carbon. Taking the concept of green and low-carbon development as a guide, the company strives to set an example in its industry. In June 2017, in this barren area on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert, Tianye Group’s strategic planning team surveyed the terrain under the scorching sun, drawing up a blueprint for the \"carbon-based new materials\" industry cluster in the Shihu Tan New Materials Industrial Park. One coordinate after another was marked on the map, and various circular economy industrial chains began to be planned; the foundations for pursuing a path of green and low-carbon coal chemical development were thus established. In August of the same year, the park’s first project – the Tianye Huihe project, with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons of coal-based ethylene glycol – began construction. The construction team made full use of Tianye Group’s advantages in scientific research and the development of circular economy models. It applied and transformed cutting-edge domestic clean technologies such as water-coal slurry gasification, syngas purification, refinement, and separation. A range of domestically produced, large-scale, environmentally friendly, and efficient equipment such as the Jinhua Furnace 3.0 was utilized. Additionally, various resource recovery techniques such as waste heat recovery, steam gradient control, and wastewater reuse were developed and put into practice to promote the high-quality development of the project. An investment of nearly 1.2 billion yuan in environmental protection initiatives accounts for 15% of the total estimated cost of the project, reflecting fully the commitment of Tianye’s employees to adopting green and low-carbon principles as a guiding principle. In the overall planning and design of park projects, the green network system becomes an important component of project construction. Tianye Group has invested millions of yuan in water-saving equipment to irrigate regularly the existing plants such as tamarisk and poplar in the sand dune areas. It has also planted drought-resistant plants like ryegrass and tamarisk on the sand dunes surrounding the park, thereby trapping the sand beneath the vegetation. At the same time, the project preparation office organizes various tree-planting activities every year. To date, over 200,000 trees of different species have been planted along the roads leading into the park and in the areas surrounding the project, creating green barriers in the desert. Guided by the concept of green and low-carbon development, through 1,000 days and nights of relentless effort by the builders of Tianye, a magnificent new chemical city surrounded by greenery has risen up in the desert. In August 2020, the Tianye Huihe project, with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons of coal-based ethylene glycol, successfully carried out its first ignition and feeding process, and was able to produce polyester-grade ethylene glycol that meets the highest standards required by China’s polyester industry. The energy consumption associated with its production is at a leading level in the industry; this project has set a benchmark for large-scale coal chemical plant construction and operation in China, thereby significantly reducing the production costs of coal-based ethylene glycol in the country. Focusing on pathways for energy conservation, emission reduction, and carbon cutting to unleash momentum for development, once the company’s annual production capacity of 600,000 tons of ethylene glycol facility was put into operation, its technical team focused on these strategies for energy conservation and carbon reduction. Adhering to a multi-product coal chemical production model that involves multiple output streams, the team pursued various environmental protection and innovation projects to help the facility generate new momentum for growth. According to Li Gang, general manager of Tianye Huihe, in the development model of coal chemical integrated production with multiple outputs per input, it is necessary to take coal gasification as the starting point and, through the complementary integration of various product production lines, achieve diversified and high-value development of end products ； On the other hand, by utilizing new resource recycling technologies, the abundant resources from intermediate processes, as well as the low-value by-products and solid waste at the end of production, are transformed into new products for downstream use, thus turning waste into treasure. This approach helps to extend the industrial chain of the circular economy and creates new drivers for the high-quality development of enterprises. Adhering to new concepts and strategies, the technical team moves with the times to achieve innovative development. In 2021, Tianye Huihe built on its domestic leadership in key technologies related to the steam generated as a by-product of the water-cooled wall radiant waste boiler gasifier of the Shinhua type 3.0, continuously exploring the potential of this equipment. It overcame various industry-related challenges such as coking in the waste boiler, a decline in steam production, and slag blockage in the quenching chamber. As a result, each unit could save 5.62–8.43 tons of standard coal per hour, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 14.28–21.41 tons per hour. At the same time, the task force established a coal blending database and identified 12 different combinations of coal types, **improving the adaptability of the coal used in the gasification furnace and enabling reliable switching between three operating units and one standby unit, as well as stable operation. New world records were set: 98 days, 130 days, and 146 days. This project set five milestones among similar enterprises in the coal chemical industry – the largest scale, the highest single-unit production capacity, the longest operation time, the best additional benefits, and the strongest emission reduction capabilities. Driven by the relentless efforts of technical personnel in pursuing breakthroughs and continuous innovation, new advancements have been made in over 20 environmental protection technologies related to coal chemical processing, including improvements to fire extinguishing systems, near-zero wastewater discharge, salt crystallization from recycled water, and the recovery and reuse of hydrogen-rich gases. The consumption of resources such as water, electricity, gas, and steam in these processes has continued to improve. Four projects for the comprehensive utilization of waste residues, with a total investment of 300 million yuan, are under rapid construction. The autoclaved brick project has already been completed and put into operation, while the aerated block and ceramsite projects, along with the waste residue carbon extraction project, are scheduled to be fully completed and operational by the end of this year. This will facilitate the extension of the coal chemical industry chain into the building materials sector, enabling 100% recycling of coal chemical waste residues. In 2021, Tianye Huihe invested 7 million yuan on top of its existing environmental protection facilities to add 7 new online environmental monitoring systems, which were used to comprehensively monitor the environmental parameters in various production areas; as a result, the accuracy rate of the online monitoring data reached 100% for the entire year. In 2022, Tianye Huihe Plan invested another approximately 26 million yuan to add three new VOCs treatment facilities in the tank areas, thereby achieving maximum recovery of volatile organic compounds and establishing a high-standard environmental protection system. In 2022, Tianye Huihe’s technical team continued to focus on the development trends of modern coal chemical industry as well as the key areas for industrial growth, and carried out three major project constructions. Among them, the pilot project for the annual production of 2,000 tons of glyoxalic acid, developed in collaboration with Donghua Technology, enables the value-added utilization of by-products ； By utilizing the surplus DMO available in production to build a project with an annual output of 100,000 tons of oxalic acid, it is possible to increase the variety of end products and achieve maximum utilization of resources ； Through research and development on the residues from gasification furnaces, and by constructing a facility with an annual production capacity of 490,000 tons of carbon-based solid waste as well as waste heat and pressure, this single initiative will result in the savings of approximately 110,000 tons of standard coal per year, along with a reduction of 182,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, the company’s technical team is working with third-party organizations on joint development efforts related to carbon dioxide capture, aiming to achieve energy savings and carbon reduction through various approaches. In response to Tianye Group’s strategy of \"one core and two new areas,\" Tianye Huihe continues to thoroughly implement the new development concepts, adheres firmly to the path of a circular economy, and strives to establish itself as a leading example in China for a green, low-carbon multi-product coal chemical production model with multiple output streams. It keeps making new contributions and taking new steps forward in promoting the high-quality development of Tianye Group as well as the new journey of industrialization in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.