【Haichuan Chemical Discussion】What on earth is a Jinhang furnace? What is the difference between it and the Jinhua space furnace?

Li Hongshuang, Party Secretary and Chairman of Jinmei Group, explained that as the largest coal chemical enterprise group in the country, the company has seized the strategic opportunities presented by the energy revolution. It has earnestly implemented the overall requirements and guidelines set forth by the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, and has innovatively proposed the idea of \"selling coal along with the furnaces, and selling gas along with the furnaces.\" In collaboration with Xi’an Sixth Research Institute, the company developed the \"Jinhang Furnace.\" After two years of effort and an investment of 286 million yuan, it was able to establish the only platform in China for the development of pressurized slag gasification technology using coal. “The successful testing of the \"Jinhang Furnace\" will effectively solve the global challenge of gasifying slag from bituminous coal with a high ash melting point, facilitate the clean and efficient utilization of such coal across the country, and strongly promote the transformation and development of Shanxi Province’s traditional coal chemical industry in terms of achieving higher standards, differentiation, market orientation, and environmental friendliness.

Seven experts agreed that this technology successfully solves the problem of liquid slag discharge for bituminous coal with a high ash fusion point, enables continuous and stable operation, features excellent process parameters, and is advanced, safe, and reliable. Compared with traditional fixed-bed batch gas production furnaces, it offers comprehensive advantages such as low renovation costs, reduced coal consumption, high gas output, high level of automation, zero emissions, and low operation and maintenance costs. The carbon conversion rate is greater than 99.5%, the carbon content in the slag is less than 0.5%, and the steam decomposition rate is above 95%. The resulting slag is in a harmless glassy state, and the by-products produced can be recycled, thereby enabling full utilization of the coal raw material. This approach provides an efficient, clean, and economical new method for the gasification of high ash-melting-point anthracite in Shanxi Province and across the country.

Li Hongshuang emphasized that in the future, Jinmei Group will rely on the “Jinhang Furnace” technology to further advance the construction of “gasification island” projects. At the same time, it will vigorously pursue the strategy of developing the JM-H (“Jinhang Furnace”), JM-S (Jinmei Siding Furnace), and JM-L (Jinmei L Furnace) simultaneously, striving to make significant breakthroughs in the establishment of demonstration bases for the upgrading of traditional coal chemical industries. The group aims to become a leader in the green development and utilization of coal, pursuing a path of development characterized by excellent industries, high quality, good efficiency, and sustainability, and striving to take the lead in Shanxi Province’s energy revolution.

The urgency to find new avenues for smokeless lump coal is pressing. Our country is rich in coal but poor in oil and gas; coal resources play a crucial role as raw materials for production, especially in the nitrogen fertilizer industry. Anthracite, being a high-quality type of coal, accounts for over 50% of the coal consumed in the traditional nitrogen fertilizer industry. At present, however, Jinmei Group and China’s traditional nitrogen fertilizer industry are facing three major constraints. First, **environmental protection policies explicitly prohibit it.** Currently, the traditional nitrogen fertilizer industry still relies on fixed-bed intermittent gas generation furnaces (UGI) as the primary equipment for gas production; there are around 3,000 such furnaces in use. However, due to their low productivity, inefficiency, high levels of pollution, and excessive emissions, they are facing elimination and shutdown. Second, “even the emperor’s daughters struggle to find husbands.” The high output of high-quality anthracite once made Jin Coal Group, the leading coal producer, feel confident that it wouldn’t have any trouble finding buyers for its products. However, this wave of environmental policies will bring an end to the manufacturing processes most suitable for the industrial use of anthracite coal. What will become of anthracite coal then? How will the lump coal market transform again? Third, there are continuous doubts from the industry. As of now, no gasification technology exists that can solve this world-class challenge of achieving high-ash-melting-point liquid slag discharge from smokeless lump coal. “Finding more economical, efficient, and environmentally friendly new pathways for the smokeless lump coal market, and achieving our strategic goal of ‘selling coal with boilers’, will be a vital project that impacts the development of the group. ”Yuan Fengzhen, director of the Coal Chemical Engineering Research Institute of Jinmei Group, explained it in this way. Dig deep into market demands to address customers’ pain points. This is the driving force that keeps the company true to its original aspirations and moving forward; it strives to break free from constraints and find a new path for smokeless lump coal.

As a pilot plant, it is designed with a coal feeding rate of 240 tons per day, and it can certainly be considered a complete industrial facility as well. As a gasification system project, the Jinhang furnace features a very high degree of integration, comprising 11 subsystems, 7 sets of equipment, over 700 instruments and valves, as well as more than 900 DCS control points. It covers various fields such as process engineering, piping, automatic control, instrumentation, electrical systems, civil engineering, HVAC, powder handling, water supply and drainage, and fire protection. It functions like a circular chain – only when every link is flawless can the successful operation of the system be ensured. Since the ash melting point of smokeless lump coal is above 1500°C, finding a way to achieve liquid slag discharge for coal with a high ash melting point is a top priority in the technical efforts of this project. If liquid slag removal is to be achieved solely by increasing the operating temperature, this will have a significant impact on the economics and long-term operation of the gasifier. Leveraging its years of expertise and technical advantages in areas such as heat transfer, combustion, and control of liquid rocket engines, the project team, based on research on slag pools, carried out a detailed design of the furnace by focusing on the properties of the slag and the mechanisms of heat transfer. Precise control of the combustion system provided operational support to facilitate liquid slag discharge. Thereby achieving liquid slag discharge from coal with a high ash fusion point, while taking into account both economy and reliability. In addition, they applied theoretical calculations and numerical simulation studies as well, overcoming one by one various key technologies such as syngas treatment techniques, online monitoring of gasification unit systems, and intelligent control technologies.

This post was last edited by The wise on 2020-5-9 at 10:36. They belong to different technical approaches: one is the fixed-bed gasification approach, and the other is the fluidized-bed gasification approach. The range of coal types that can be handled also varies; fixed-bed reactors have a more limited range, while fluidized-bed reactors offer greater potential in terms of adaptability and reactor scale. For details on gasification furnaces, see: Types of coal gasification technologies https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-2952749-1-1.html (Source: Huahai Chuanliu – Haichuan Chemical Industry Forum)

Gasification furnaces are emerging everywhere, and they seem to be at the forefront of world technology; however, it remains to be seen what their actual performance is, as this needs to be verified through industrial projects

Yes, China is a world-class industrial laboratory for gasification technology.