Environmental impact assessment applications have been accepted for the 300,000-ton-per-year polyethylene and 400,000-ton-per-year polypropylene project (emergency response) by Yulin Chemical of Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group, as well as the 220,000-ton-per-year vinyl acetate and 200,000-ton-per-year polyvinyl alcohol projects

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Recently, the Yulin Ecology and Environment Bureau issued a public notice regarding the acceptance of the environmental impact assessment reports for Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical’s projects to produce 300,000 tons per year of polyethylene and 400,000 tons per year of polypropylene (for emergency response purposes), as well as 220,000 tons per year of vinyl acetate and 200,000 tons per year of polyvinyl alcohol. The olefins, aromatics, and advanced processing project as part of Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd.’s 15 million tons per year demonstration project for clean and efficient conversion of coal into various products, received approval from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in January 2024. The total investment in this project is 176 billion yuan; it involves the construction of facilities for the pyrolysis of 13.5 million tons per year of coal, methanol production at a rate of 5.6 million tons per year, as well as facilities for the production of aromatics and related downstream products. The main outputs of these facilities will be new materials, biodegradable materials, and battery electrolytes. This project aims to address the imbalance between supply and demand for coal in China, where there is an abundance of coal but a shortage of oil. It also supports the development of the coal chemical industry in terms of higher quality, greater diversity, and lower carbon emissions, while fostering the growth of the biodegradable materials industry. At present, due to factors such as the source of technology, market conditions, and funding availability in the implementation of the \"Olefins, Aromatics, and Advanced Processing Projects\", it is planned to carry out the construction in phases. Initially, facilities for producing olefins from coal via methanol and some downstream products (such as polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl acetate, EVA, acrylic acid, and superabsorbent resins) will be built, with an investment of around 62 billion yuan. Subsequently, the remaining downstream olefin facilities (such as ethylene oxide, POE, propylene oxide, phenol, and biodegradable materials) as well as aromatic compounds and their downstream products (such as coal pyrolysis, coal tar hydrogenation, aromatic compound synthesis, polycarbonates, and polyesters) will be constructed in an orderly manner. Due to the different commissioning times of the facilities implemented in phases, the olefin plants built first had a surplus of 254,000 tons per year of ethylene and 371,600 tons per year of propylene during the transition period. Ethylene and propylene monomers are flammable and explosive; they can only be stored for short periods under low temperatures or high pressures. Selling and transporting them poses significant safety risks. Moreover, the surrounding enterprises already have stable supplies of ethylene and propylene, so it is not possible to sell these excess amounts or to have them utilized by those nearby companies. Therefore, in order to temporarily utilize the excess ethylene and propylene, Shaanxi Coal Group Yulin Chemical Co., Ltd. plans to adopt a \"multiple outputs from one input\" approach, aiming to build projects with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene during the transition period, as well as projects for 220,000 tons of vinyl acetate and 200,000 tons of polyvinyl alcohol. The construction of the polyolefin and polyvinyl alcohol projects will not only help to utilize excess ethylene and propylene, but also result in a shorter industrial chain compared to the downstream units for olefins and aromatics (6 units that use ethylene and propylene directly as raw materials, along with 10 additional downstream processing units), thereby reducing pollutant emissions. It also brings better profits to enterprises and enriches downstream products.