China Petrochemical’s first helium purification unit developed independently was installed at the Chongqing Petroleum LNG plant
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China Petrochemical’s first helium purification unit, developed independently, achieved successful commissioning at the Chongqing Petroleum LNG plant, successfully producing high-purity helium that meets quality standards. This project can produce over 20 tons of high-purity helium with a purity of 99.999% per year. Helium features low density, low boiling point, good thermal conductivity, and stable chemical properties, and is widely used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, the electronics industry, and biomedicine. However, our country has relatively scarce helium resources, and the technology for extracting helium is underdeveloped; over 95% of helium resources rely on imports. At present, helium resources with practical application value come solely from helium-containing natural gas, and it is necessary to effectively purify and utilize helium. Due to the complex composition of natural gas exhaust, the kinetic diameters of methane, nitrogen, and helium molecules are very similar, making it extremely difficult to extract helium. This helium purification project utilizes key technologies such as highly efficient deep dehydrogenation and membrane-based helium separation, which were independently developed by the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology under Sinopec, thereby achieving innovations and breakthroughs from process development to industrial application technology. To date, Beihua Institute has filed 14 Chinese invention patents and 2 foreign patents for related technologies. The helium for this project comes from the Chongqing Petroleum LNG plant; by purifying the plant’s exhaust gas, which is rich in helium and hydrogen, waste is transformed into a valuable resource, yielding helium products with a purity of 99.999%. Over the years, Sinopec has focused on making breakthroughs in key core technologies by organizing \"ten-dragon\" technology research projects. Next, Sinopec will develop improved processes tailored to the low abundance of helium resources in China, in order to further reduce the energy consumption of these processes and enhance their stability. This will help increase China’s helium production capacity, thereby meeting the needs of the country’s economic development.
Over 90% of the world’s helium resources are in the hands of the United States and Qatar, making it the \"rare earth\" of inert gases.
【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】3 million cubic meter LNG BOG helium extraction units from 2016 to 2022 https://bbs.hcbbs.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3583339 (Source: Haichuan Network – Chemical Industry Trends)
China imports 3,000 tons of helium per year, most of which comes from Qatar.
There are many helium purification projects underway now
I don’t know which design institute designed this set of equipment Where is it made?
The Fuling LNG plant is a key project jointly developed by Sinopec and Chongqing Municipality, with a designed production capacity of 3 million cubic meters per day, resulting in an annual output of 680,000 tons of liquefied natural gas. It will be built in 3 phases.
Since March 2018, the Fuling LNG plant of Sinopec Chongqing Petroleum Branch has been supplying Fuling shale gas to users such as gas stations in surrounding areas including Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou, and Hubei, as well as for domestic gas use and small-scale industrial applications; this gas is known as “Fuling Gas”. At the end of 2018, when technicians analyzed the exhaust gases produced by the Fuling LNG plant, they found that the helium content in those gases was as high as 15%, a figure that is significantly higher than that of similar plants in the industry. Upon learning the significant fact that the exhaust gases produced by the Fuling LNG plant were rich in helium, the company immediately decided to overcome all difficulties in order to establish a helium purification facility, determined to turn those exhaust gases into a source of benefit. Purifying helium is difficult, especially the purification of high-purity helium. Faced with technological blockades, independence and self-reliance become the only options. Sinopec included the helium purification project at the Fuling LNG plant in its \"Ten Dragon\" scientific research initiative, marking the beginning of a four-year period of independent research and development. In 2018, preliminary research on helium extraction technology from Fuling shale gas was initiated ； In March 2019, several engineering, production, and research units under Sinopec collaborated to work on this project, establishing the task of \"Developing technologies for helium recovery from BOG emissions in LNG plants\" ； In April 2021, the research results were approved by the group’s Science and Technology Department; in April of the following year, they passed the initial process validation review conducted by the Chongqing Emergency Management Bureau, and the technology and safety aspects of the project were recognized by all parties involved. According to Dong Xu, the person in charge of this research project, the helium purification project at the Fuling LNG plant has achieved several technological innovations. To date, 3 foreign patents and 16 Chinese invention patents have been applied for, successfully overcoming the critical bottleneck in helium purification technology. Among them, the helium purification membrane was independently developed in China for the first time, breaking through certain technical blockades in the field of polymer materials specifically designed for helium separation membranes.