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Shaanxi Chemical Industry makes use of its plant advantages to achieve high production with low consumption; by tapping into internal potential, it further improves energy efficiency and productivity. Author/Source: Shaanxi Chemical Industry. Date: December 28, 2022. Clicks: 18. 2022 was a crucial year for Shaanxi Chemical Industry as it pursued transformation and upgrading toward higher-quality development. Over the course of the year, under the proper leadership of the group company, the Production Technology Department successfully completed all the tasks assigned to it by the company. This was achieved through continuous optimization of production processes, strengthening of basic management practices, close monitoring of hourly production rates, and thorough training for employees. As a result, the capacity of the production facilities kept setting new historical records, and the department made unremitting efforts to contribute to the company’s development. Production management has seen many highlights, with continuous good news and remarkable achievements. Following the major maintenance of the production facilities in June and July this year, the ammonia synthesis plant is now capable of operating safely, efficiently, and stably over extended periods of time. After the major maintenance is completed, the daily production of synthetic ammonia will increase by 150 tons, the daily capacity for urea production will increase by 200 tons, and the daily capacity for BDO production will increase by 50 tons; the system will thus have a production capacity that is 10% higher. In January, 13,000 tons of BDO were produced, setting a new record. In March, the production of phosphate ammonium was 33,891.2 tons; in September, the daily output of phosphate ammonium exceeded 1,200 tons, reaching a record high. In October, the production of synthetic ammonia and urea reached record levels. In the first quarter, synthetic ammonia, phosphate ammonium, 1,4-butanediol, and poly**furan all reached new highs, exceeding the best levels recorded in the same period of the previous year; they increased by 0.77%, 4.27%, 11.92%, and 11.65% respectively compared to the same period last year. Furnace C for gasification began operating on March 3, and was shut down as scheduled on May 23, running steadily for a total of 81 days – setting a new record for the longest operating period since its initial commissioning. The unit with a 715% improvement in ammonia synthesis efficiency achieved successful commissioning on the first attempt. The feeding rate of acetylene in Phase 1 of BDO was stabilized at 10 m3/h, with a daily BYD production of 240 tons, achieving a 20% increase in output ； With the improvement in efficiency in the second phase, BYD’s second plant is able to achieve a production capacity of 1,000 tons per day after it starts operating. The alkynation efficiency improvement project achieved a successful first start-up and was put into operation smoothly. The concentration of the gasified high-pressure coal slurry remained stable at around 63.85%, an increase of 0.85% compared to last year. In August this year, the company was awarded the third-place honor as the “Leader” in synthetic ammonia energy efficiency for 2022 by the Petrochemical Federation. Focusing on hourly output to achieve high productivity with low consumption, the production organization fulfills the functions of a control room by keeping an eye on the hourly output of products. Every two hours, the control room updates the production WeChat group with the hourly output for each product. If the hourly output of a particular product decreases, the control room will continue to monitor the factors affecting that output. Use time after work to organize analysis meetings for the teams whose performance affects production, discuss the reasons behind these issues, and develop appropriate measures to ensure stable production. Make good use of the horizontal team rewards to spark a wave of competition among teams based on the principles of comparison, learning, striving, and surpassing one another. The company sets aside 100,000 yuan per month as a reward for the top-performing teams, awarding it only to the two teams with the highest production and consumption levels, with the rewards distributed by the dispatch office. The dispatch room plays a key role in guiding production through rewards for cross-shift teams. The chairman has emphasized on many occasions at meetings: \"As a manufacturing enterprise, only by increasing production volume can we reduce our various costs per unit of output.\" Only high yields can lead to low consumption. ”Since the beginning of this year, the company has made meeting production targets a top priority while ensuring safety, always adhering to the principle that \"high output leads to low consumption.\" The production volume of each product, whether on a daily or monthly basis, has been increasing steadily, constantly setting new historical records. Pay close attention to energy-saving management, making full use of any remaining heat and pressure. When the market is favorable, it is necessary to leverage the advantage in production capacity in order to manufacture more products and generate profits for the company. When the market is poor, it is necessary to leverage cost advantages and work to reduce costs while improving efficiency. How to effectively reduce costs? Energy-saving technological upgrades are undoubtedly the most direct approach. This year, the Production Technology Department utilized energy cooperation models to fully exploit the energy-saving potential of production facilities, and completed two projects successively: the BDO steam waste heat recovery project and the energy-saving renovation project for the Shaanxi Blower Corporation’s circulating water system ； The ongoing projects such as the gasification deaerator vent gas recovery project, the 450A circulating water energy-saving optimization upgrade project, and the BDO excess pressure recovery energy-saving upgrade project have entered the construction phase. These energy-saving renovation projects recycle waste heat, exhaust gas, surplus heat, and excess pressure from the production system through modifications, turning waste into valuable resources; merely these five energy-saving renovation projects helped the company save 40 million yuan in costs over the course of a year. Benchmarking management helps overcome bottlenecks and strive for leadership to achieve excellence. In our production management process, there are still many bottleneck issues. To address the production-related bottlenecks such as poor crystallization of the liquid in the system after boiler desulfurization, a short continuous operating time of the gasification furnace, and issues related to butanol in the BDO hydrogenation catalyst. On the one hand, the Production Technology Department continuously summarizes experience and optimizes operations to find breakthroughs on its own ； On the other hand, organize relevant departments to learn from industry leaders as a benchmark, drawing on their strengths to address one’s own weaknesses. To address the issues related to water quality management in the circulating water used in coal chemical industries, technical personnel from the Power Division were sent to Pucheng Clean Energy Company to conduct benchmarking on water quality management practices ； To address the issue of high BDO hydrogenated butanol levels, technical personnel from the BDO production plant were sent to Sichuan Tianhua and Chongqing Chiyuan for benchmarking and exchange ； Organized technical personnel from the urea production plant to carry out benchmarking exchanges on urea production processes with Shanxi Fengxi Chemical ； The gasification plant and power plant were organized to visit Shaanxi Runzhong Clean Energy Company to observe the operation of gasifiers and boilers. Through a series of targeted benchmarking exchanges, we have been able to see the advanced standards in this industry, as well as the gaps that exist between our own capabilities and those standards. By drawing on best practices, we have optimized the process operations and upgraded the equipment components; as a result, our operational indicators such as boiler steam coal consumption, gasification slurry concentration, effective gas composition in the gasifier, BDO product quality, and natural gas consumption in phosphorus ammonium hot air furnaces all reach advanced levels in the industry.