Thread Content
Author/Source: China Coal Chemical Network Date: 2009-4-8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In January 2009, the Xinjiang Daily reported that leaders of Shenhua Group informed local Xinjiang officials about the successful first trial run of the million-ton-scale demonstration project for direct coal liquefaction. They said that this demonstration project would be expanded over the coming years to include three production lines with an annual capacity of 3 million tons, requiring an investment of at least 30 billion yuan. He also announced that going forward, Shenhua Group will make Xinjiang the main hub for economic growth and direct coal liquefaction; regardless of any changes in the domestic or international economic environment, Shenhua Group’s determination to increase its investment in Xinjiang will remain unchanged. Yahua Consulting believes that, thanks to the infrastructure for the extraction and transportation of oil and natural gas, Xinjiang already has excellent conditions for the transport of oil and gas pipelines. This will greatly facilitate the transportation of coal-based chemical products such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-synthetic natural gas, making it more feasible to develop the coal chemical industry in Xinjiang. In order to jointly explore the impact of the international economic environment on the coal chemical industry – including policy trends, the progress of industrial projects for coal-to-oil and coal chemical production, the development of coal-based synthetic natural gas, as well as investment trends and future market prospects – building on the success of the first three conferences, the \"4th China Coal-to-Oil, Coal Chemicals and Coal Power International Forum 2009\" will be held from June 16 to 18, 2009, in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Visits to the eastern coal power and coal chemical industry bases will also be arranged. According to media reports, in late February 2009, officials from Shenhua Group said in Beijing that the group’s coal direct liquefaction project in Ordos was scheduled to begin its second trial operation in June of that year, with commercial operation potentially starting in 2010. The first production line of Phase 1 of this project has a capacity of 1 million tons per year of oil products; it was successfully commissioned in January 2009, and after nearly two weeks of trial operation, it was shut down as planned. Yahua Consulting believes that the first and second trial operations will lay a solid foundation for future commercial operation.