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DMTO technology helps build the world’s largest coal-based olefins plant. On May 12, the steam cracking unit of the Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-Based Olefins Project (Phase I), designed by Sinopec Guangzhou Engineering Co., Ltd., was successfully commissioned and began producing qualified products. To date, a total of 52 major projects, including three series of methanol-to-olefins plants designed by this company, have been fully constructed and put into operation. The methanol-to-olefins production capacity of Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd. has also reached 3 million tons, making it the largest coal-to-olefins plant in the world. It is reported that the DMTO technology used in this device is a new core coal chemical technology with independent intellectual property rights, jointly developed by institutions such as the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Sinopec Guangzhou Engineering Co., Ltd. After the successful development and commercial application of DMTO-Ⅰ and DMTO-Ⅱ, the two parties signed an agreement for the development of DMTO-Ⅲ in July 2020. Research and design engineers have carried out a new round of development work focusing on key equipment, control schemes, layout planning, start-up and shutdown methods, and long-term operation. Since the signing of the agreement, the research team has not only successfully developed new technologies and equipment such as tandem MTO reactors, new reaction regeneration systems, novel heat extraction schemes for reactors, as well as methanol feed distributors with special structures designed to work in conjunction with high-efficiency reactors and rapid gas-solid separation facilities; thereby creating a number of patents and proprietary technologies with independent intellectual property rights. They have also carried out a series of energy optimization efforts on the DMTO-III plant, achieving efficient coupling between the DMTO unit and the olefin separation unit. In August 2023, after the first industrial plant utilizing DMTO-III technology with an olefin production capacity of millions of tons was built and put into operation in Ningxia, research and design personnel visited the site on multiple occasions to address the new problems that arose during operation. They conducted in-depth analysis of the operational data and proposed improvement measures, thereby continuously refining and enhancing the engineering capabilities of DMTO-III. Data from the operation of industrial production units that are already in use show that the DMTO-Ⅲ technology not only reduces the methanol consumption per ton of olefins, but also significantly increases the olefin production capacity of each unit. Additionally, it allows for flexible operation under different conditions based on market demands. According to statistics, the DMTO series of technologies have seen 38 license transfers over the years, resulting in a total olefin production capacity of 26.35 million tons per year ; Twenty DMTO units designed or constructed through EPC by Sinopec Guangzhou Engineering Co., Ltd. have been put into operation, with a combined olefin production capacity of 13.08 million tons per year. Currently, several methanol-to-olefins projects designed using DMTO-III technology by this company are under construction. Once the DMTO plant with an annual olefin production capacity of 1.35 million tons is completed, it will set a new record once again for the largest scale of a methanol-to-olefins plant.