Another 100,000 tons added to PGA! Latest progress on PGA projects of eight domestic companies

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Another 100,000 tons added to PGA! Latest Progress of PGA Projects in Eight Domestic Companies Author/Source: Coal Chemical Industry Information Network Date: 2022-11-18 Clicks: 20 Recently, the Inner Mongolia Government Service Website issued a notification regarding project registration. The industrial project registration (for development and reform purposes) for Guoneng Mengxi Coal Chemical Co., Ltd.’s project to upgrade its coking capacity to 3 million tons per year and to develop integrated high-tech biodegradable materials is in line with industrial policies and market access standards; therefore, registration is approved. The project is located in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. The total investment amount is 14,185,181,800 yuan. The planned construction period runs from March 2023 to September 2024. The main production facilities include a new integrated project for the upgrading of the coking industry and the production of high-tech biodegradable materials, with an annual production capacity of 3 million tons. These facilities comprise a 3-million-ton-per-year coking unit, devices for the conversion and purification of coke oven gas, devices for CO extraction from the gas, hydrogen extraction units, air separation units, a 150,000-ton-per-year methanol production unit, a 200,000-ton-per-year ethanol production unit, and a 100,000-ton-per-year PGA production unit. The project is implemented in two phases: Phase 1 involves the construction of a coking unit with an annual capacity of 1.66 million tons and chemical production facilities, while Phase 2 involves the construction of a coking unit with an annual capacity of 1.34 million tons. The construction of the second-phase project will not begin until the announcement regarding the replacement of 1.34 million tons of production capacity is finalized. With policy support, many domestic companies are making plans. Companies such as Sinopec, **Energy Group, Shenhua Yulin Energy Chemical, and Shanghai Pujing Chemical are actively exploring ways to carry out strong collaborations, integrate and optimize resources, enhance complementary strengths, and work together to accelerate the industrialization process, thereby promoting the high-quality development of China’s biodegradable plastics industry. 01 Pujing Chemicals: In 2010, Shanghai Pujing Chemicals independently developed the \"syngas-to-glycolic acid technology,\" producing glycolic acid crystals with a purity of over 99.6%. A breakthrough was achieved in the use of coal-based syngas to produce PGA, making large-scale production of PGA from methyl glycolate a feasible process. In 2018, Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Materials Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Pujing Chemicals, invested 550 million yuan to build a factory in Jiuyuan District. Using coal-based syngas produced by Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemicals Co., Ltd. as raw material, the company manufactured PGA through eight processing steps including esterification, carbonylation, distillation, and polymerization; this facility also became part of the extension project for the coal-based olefins industry chain. In mid-July 2020, Inner Mongolia Pujing officially began trial production in the Jiuyuan Industrial Park. The first phase enabled a production capacity of 1,500 tons per year of PGA; once all phases of the project are completed, the PGA production capacity will reach 10,000 tons per year. It is reported that the capacity will be increased by another 50,000 tons per year in 2022. 02 Danhua Technology: In 2017, Danhua Technology established a new materials company in Jiangsu to develop PGA, a raw material for biodegradable plastics. A pilot production facility with an annual capacity of 3,000 tons of PGA was built; this facility has undergone multiple trial operations. Other biodegradable raw materials have also been purchased for further modification and research, and some daily-use products have already been produced on a trial basis. 03 Tongliao Jinmei: In 2017, Tongliao Jinmei commenced construction of its first PGA production facility with an annual capacity of 3,000 tons; this facility utilized a technology for producing PGA from coal-based syngas, developed independently by its subsidiary Jiangsu Jinju Alloy Materials Co., Ltd. On December 7, 2018, the first batch of products from Tongliao Jinmei’s 3,000-ton/year PGA facility was produced. Planning to build a production line with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons in the future. 04 **Energy Group: In April 2020, the 50,000-ton/year PGA demonstration project of Shenhua Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd., which is part of the Energy Group, was approved and registered.** On March 1, 2021, the groundbreaking ceremony for **Energy Group Yulin Energy Chemical Co., Ltd.’s 50,000-ton/year PGA demonstration project was held. This project is the world’s first PGA facility and serves as a **pilot project**. It is located in the northern area of the Qingshui Coal Chemical Industrial Park, Yushen Industrial Zone, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. With a total investment of 940 million yuan and an overall area of 9.8 hectares, it employs the two-step PGA production process developed by Pujing Chemical Industry. This project is an extension of the coal-to-olefins industry chain; once it comes online, it will mark China’s first breakthrough in the field of biodegradable plastic PGA. On February 21, 2022, the project launched a \"100-Day Campaign\" in an effort to achieve full completion of the project by June 30. On April 14, 2021, the **Energy Group’s 2021 Presentation on Coal-Based New Materials was held in Shenzhen. The meeting briefed the attendees on the progress and commissioning schedule of the **Energy Group’s 50,000 tons/year PGA demonstration project in Yulin. On June 22, 2022, Danzhou City in Hainan held discussions with **Energy Group’s Hainan branch; the two parties agreed to accelerate the planning and development of projects such as a low-carbon industrial park, a Hainan International Shipping Trade Center, and PGA biodegradable materials. In September 2022, the 50,000-ton/year PGA biodegradable materials demonstration project of **Energy Group Yulin Chemical was officially completed and put into operation, with all production processes established. This marked the industrialization of the world’s first demonstration project for producing polyglycolic acid biodegradable materials from coal. 05 Hubei Fertilizer: On August 11, 2020, Sinopec signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the people’s government of Hubei Province, committing to support the local transformation of Hubei Fertilizer in order to establish Sinopec’s first PGA new materials project there. On March 25, 2021, a meeting was held to initiate the basic design work for Hubei Fertilizer’s 50,000 tons per year PGA new material project. The meeting focused on the basic design and schedule for the project construction, further optimization of the process package, as well as the collection of certain basic data required for safety pre-assessments and environmental impact assessments under the \"three simultaneities\" principle. 06 Sinopec Great Wall Energy Chemicals: On November 25, 2020, Sinopec and Guizhou Province signed a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement for the comprehensive promotion of high-quality development; under this agreement, Sinopec Great Wall Energy Chemicals planned to build a PGA production facility with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province. Under the agreement, the total investment in this project is approximately 23 billion yuan, and it utilizes the two-step PGA production process developed by Pujing Chemical. The project is constructed in two phases. Phase 1 involves the construction of a PGA production facility with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons (4 units, each with a capacity of 50,000 tons; the capacity of each unit is equivalent to that of the largest production facilities in China). Completion is scheduled for 2024, with a total investment of around 11 billion yuan ； The second phase involves the construction of a PGA plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons, to be completed by 2026, with a total investment of around 12 billion yuan. This project is a demonstration project by Sinopec to advance cutting-edge coal chemical technologies toward industrial application, and it serves as a landmark project for Guizhou Province in achieving new types of industrialization and rural revitalization. On April 22, 2021, a meeting was held to discuss the general layout and site leveling plan for Sinopec Great Wall Energy Chemical (Guizhou) Co., Ltd.’s 500,000 tons per year PGA project. On July 6, 2021, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 200,000-ton/year PGA production unit of the first phase of Sinopec’s 500,000-ton/year PGA project in Guizhou was held in Zhijin County, Bijie City. 07 Jiu Tai New Materials On March 15, 2021, Jiu Tai New Materials Company in Inner Mongolia held a ceremony to mark the opening of its R&D and testing workshop for PGA environmentally degradable materials. The PGA research and development project utilizes JiuTai’s independently developed polyglycolic acid technology, as well as the abundant glycolic acid intermediates from existing projects, to establish the world’s first production line for manufacturing polyglycolic acid resins from coal through glycolic acid. It is understood that the project involves a PGA production capacity of 10,000 tons per year. 08 Inner Mongolia Rongxin Chemical: On January 12, 2022, Inner Mongolia Rongxin Chemical Co., Ltd.’s project for producing PGA from dimethyl oxalate at a capacity of 3,000 tons per year was approved for implementation. The total investment in this project is 40 million yuan, with completion scheduled for March 2023. Building on the existing ethylene glycol facility, the project will utilize dimethyl oxalate as a raw material to construct a plant capable of producing 3,000 tons per year of biodegradable plastic polyglycolic acid. Overall, before 2020, China’s PGA industry relied mainly on imports; in 2021, it experienced rapid development and entered a stage of state-led industrialization. However, most of the PGA projects currently built in China are laboratory-scale pilot and pilot plant facilities, with a capacity of no more than 3,000 tons per year. In the past two years, driven by companies such as Sinopec and **Energy Group, China’s PGA industry has been developing actively. With the implementation of new and planned projects, China’s PGA production capacity will continue to rise; PGA is likely to become domestically produced gradually, and the market scale will also keep expanding.