【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】For the first time, synthetic catalysts for large-scale coal-to-methanol plants were successfully developed domestically between 2016 and 2023

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The chemical processing industry has seen significant development over the past decade; it is a pleasure to see China thriving and strong. I wish everyone a happy New Year, as well as peace and health for their families. By contributing our ideas, we can create a more lively atmosphere for discussion. With you all involved, Haichuan becomes even better – I encourage everyone to participate more actively in the forum discussions. **********************************************At the beginning of January 2023, the 1.8 million tons per year coal-to-methanol plant operated by **Energy Group used the XNC-98-5 methanol synthesis catalyst, developed independently by Southwest Chemical Research and Design Institute Co., Ltd., which is part of Sinochem (hereinafter referred to as “Southwest Institute”). With the plant’s operating load increased to 108%, the output of MTO-grade methanol reached 259 tons per hour. All process parameters met the required standards, and the conversion efficiency at this load was higher than that achieved with foreign catalysts. This marks the first time that a synthesis catalyst for large-scale coal-to-methanol plants has been successfully developed domestically. According to officials from the Southwest Research Institute, China is rich in coal but lacks oil and gas; therefore, it is necessary to use coal to produce bulk chemicals such as methanol in order to make up for the shortage of oil and gas resources. Larger-scale installations can significantly reduce the capital investment, energy consumption, and production costs; therefore, new coal-to-methanol plants are all built with a capacity of over one million tons. As of 2022, China’s total annual methanol production capacity was around 100 million tons, with large-scale methanol plants with a production capacity of over 1 million tons accounting for 50% of this total. However, as methanol production facilities in our country become larger in scale, the methanol synthesis process packages and catalysts have become one of the key technologies that pose challenges in modern coal chemical industry. The author has learned that the Southwest Research Institute was one of the first research institutions in China to carry out research on low-pressure methanol synthesis processes and catalysts. In recent years, the Southwest Research Institute has focused on ** and industry needs, kept up with the global developments in methanol synthesis processes and catalyst technologies, and continuously worked on improving these areas through research and development. The XNC-98-5 methanol synthesis catalyst developed by the Southwest Research Institute has been successfully deployed in **an energy group’s large-scale methanol synthesis plant with a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year, marking a crucial step forward in the effort to use domestically produced catalysts in large-scale coal-based methanol production facilities.