【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 1984 to 2020, Nanjing produced 340 tons of methanol water-cooled reactors

The second-phase construction project of China Coal Energetic Chemicals Company, which involves technological upgrades for the production of 1 million tons of methanol per year from syngas, is located in the Tuk Industrial Park in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Land for this second phase has been reserved next to the facilities from the first phase, covering an area of 25.13 hectares. The project utilizes Zemach BGL fixed-bed slag gasification technology, purification technologies (low-temperature methanol washing + deep cryogenic methane separation), as well as advanced methanol synthesis technologies with low consumption and energy use, to build an MTO-grade methanol plant with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons. On September 21, 2018, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the technical upgrade project at China Coal Ordos Energy Chemical Co., Ltd., aimed at producing 1 million tons of methanol per year from syngas. The main units include: a 1 million tons per year methanol production plant, which comprises an air separation unit, a gasification unit (for gasification, gas-water separation, phenol and ammonia recovery, coal gas compression, shift reaction and cooling, chemical deoxygenation station, integrated tank farms, gasification slag disposal, and gasification flares), a purification unit (low-temperature methanol washing and RTO systems for flue gas combustion), a cryogenic separation unit (for methane cryogenic separation and LNG tank farms), a sulfur recovery unit, and a methanol synthesis unit (for syngas compression, methanol synthesis, refrigeration processes, hydrogen recovery, intermediate methanol tank farms, and finished methanol tank farms). The Zhongmei Energhua project, with an annual production capacity of 2 million tons of ammonia and 3.5 million tons of urea, was constructed in two phases. The first phase, which has an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of ammonia and 1.75 million tons of urea, includes two air separation units with a capacity of 40,000 Nm3/h each; these units were completed and put into operation in 2013. Meanwhile, some of the public facilities required for the second phase as well as all the office and living facilities have already been built. Based on the current market conditions and operational status, Phase II of the project plans to shift from producing synthetic ammonia and urea to manufacturing 1 million tons of methanol, thereby supplying MTO-grade methanol feedstock to the olefin plants of China Coal Mengda Company.

The methanol plant was designed by China Fifth Ring Engineering Co., Ltd. and supervised in construction by Beijing Zhongheng Xinda Project Management Co., Ltd. The equipment was manufactured by the Chemical Machinery Factory of Sinopec Nanjing Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., with a production period of 16 months. This equipment serves as the core reaction vessel for producing methanol from syngas; catalysts are added to the syngas within this vessel to yield methanol of suitable quality. The heat exchange tubes of this equipment are imported from Germany, and their manufacturing process is based on Lurgi’s patents. It is a complex process with a long production cycle, high difficulties, and a high level of technical complexity; it represents the most critical core equipment in methanol production projects.

On July 24, 2022, the core equipment of the methanol synthesis unit for the China Coal Hubei Energy Chemicals project – a 320-ton water-cooled methanol synthesis reactor – was successfully hoisted into place.