Countdown begins for the full commissioning and operation of Xinjiang Meike Chemical’s BDO project

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The full-scale commissioning of Xinjiang Meike Chemical’s BDO project is now within countdown time. Author/Source: Coal Chemical Industry Information Network. Date: 2023-04-07. Clicks: 23. On the morning of April 1, the acetylene flare system of the BDO unit at Xinjiang Meike Chemical Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Zhongtai Meike Chemical”) was successfully put into operation, marking the onset of the countdown period for the full-scale commissioning of this project. Overview of Meike Chemical Project: The Meike Chemical Industrial Park is located within the Korla Economic and Technological Development Zone, to the southeast of Korla city. Mek Chemical places emphasis on the clean conversion of resources, taking advantage of the oil and gas resources as well as the geographical advantages of the Tarim region, thereby making positive contributions to the in-place deep processing of Xinjiang’s abundant natural gas resources. Xinjiang Meike Chemical Co., Ltd. is China’s largest producer of BDO. Zhongtai Chemical holds 25% of Meike Chemical’s shares, while Zhongtai Chemical’s parent company, Xinjiang Zhongtai (Group) Co., Ltd., owns 53% of those shares. The completion and commissioning of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Meike Chemical Industrial Park, with an annual production capacity of 160,000 tons of BDO, marked a real breakthrough in the development of a fine chemical industry in Xinjiang that uses natural gas as raw material. Phase 3 of the project, jointly developed by Meike Chemical and BASF, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of BDO and 50,000 tons of PTHF, has already begun construction and was fully commissioned in 2016. Currently, Meike Chemical has become a professional BDO supplier in the domestic market, with its product and service quality meeting industry standards. The 60,000-ton per year 1,4-butanediol (BDO) production project in the first phase of Meike Chemical Industrial Park came online in 2008. It has operated in a safe, stable, continuous, full-capacity, and high-quality manner for four consecutive years, achieving good economic and social benefits. This project marked a breakthrough for Xinjiang in the development of the fine chemical industry using natural gas as raw material, and the company has become a professional BDO supplier in China. Mek Chemical’s second-phase project, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of 1,4-butanediol (BDO), was put into operation in February 2013. This further strengthened Mek Chemical’s position in the BDO market in Asia and around the world, and it also contributed to the development of the fine chemicals industry in Xinjiang and throughout China’s western region. The third-phase coal-based fine chemicals integration project of Meike Chemical was launched in March 2013, and it will continue to work together with BASF, a Fortune 500 company, to produce highly integrated, high-value-added downstream derivatives. The third-phase project uses natural gas as raw material; its main products are 100,000 tons per year of 1,4-butanediol and 50,000 tons per year of PTHF. Construction began in 2013, and the facility was fully operational by 2016 ； The third-phase project, through its joint venture with BASF, marks Meike Chemical Industrial Park’s gradual emergence as one of the advanced chemical enterprise parks in China, laying a more solid foundation for the international expansion of Meike Chemical and the achievement of its medium- to long-term strategic goals. Based on coal-to-olefins technology, and through approaches such as technology introduction, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions, Meike Chemical will gradually enter the field of a wide range of integrated, high-value-added engineering plastics products. Establish an environment-friendly fine chemical industry cluster in Korla, Xinjiang, characterized by integration, circularity, intensification, and convergence. On June 30, 2022, Zhongtai Meike Chemical held a ceremony to celebrate the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party and the mechanical completion of the fourth phase of its 100,000 tons per year BDO production project. On July 15, 2022, construction began on Phase 5 of Zhongtai Meike Chemical’s 100,000-ton/year BDO production facility. The project plans to build 25,000 tons per year of acetylene produced by the calcium carbide method, 100,000 tons per year of 1,4-butanediol, 240,000 tons per year of formaldehyde, as well as 4 hydrogen production units with a capacity of 13,000 Nm3/h each ； It includes supporting thermoelectric units, tar furnaces, circulating water systems, desalination and reclaimed water stations, air compression nitrogen generation stations, production water pump stations, plant-wide flares, power transformation and distribution systems, cabinet rooms, as well as underground and external piping throughout the plant. The project covers an area of 333 mu, with a total investment of 2.693 billion yuan. Once operational, it is expected to generate an annual output value of 2.45 billion yuan and create 266 new job opportunities.