The pouring of 6 super-large volume concrete raft slabs for the gasification unit of Inner Mongolia Baofeng’s 2.6 million tons per year coal-to-olefins project was completed successfully

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The pouring of 6 super-large volume concrete raft slabs for the gasification unit of the 2.6 million tons per year coal-to-olefins project in Baofeng, Inner Mongolia, was successfully completed. Author/Source: Gasification World Date: May 11, 2023 Clicks: 24 Recently, the pouring of these 6 super-large volume concrete raft slabs was successfully carried out by the sixth branch company of China National Chemical Engineering Corporation, laying a solid foundation for the completion of the main structure of the gasification unit by August this year. On November 23, 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the \"Approval on the Environmental Impact Report for the First Phase of Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-Based New Materials Co., Ltd.’s Project for Producing 2.6 million tons per year of olefins from coal, along with a related facility for producing olefins using green hydrogen in amounts of 400,000 tons per year\" (Document No. Huan Shen [2022] 183). It granted approval for Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-Based New Materials Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co., Ltd., to construct a new facility for producing 2.6 million tons per year of olefins from coal, along with a related facility for producing olefins using green hydrogen in amounts of 400,000 tons per year, in the Tuk Industrial Zone of Sugri Economic Development Zone, Wushen Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. The project employs a combined production process using green hydrogen and modern coal chemical technology, with an overall olefin production capacity of 3 million tons per year. It is the largest coal-based olefin plant in the world to date, and it is also the only project globally that uses green hydrogen on a large scale to replace fossil fuels in the production of olefins. Project Overview: Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary established in Inner Mongolia by Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co., Ltd., using its own capital of 950 million yuan, in partnership with its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Olefin Plant Co., Ltd. The project plans to use Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd. as the main entity, and to combine this with the construction of an integrated demonstration project for hydrogen production from wind and solar energy. This approach will enable the reduction of carbon emissions through the use of green electricity, green oxygen, and green hydrogen, while also reducing the need to purchase methanol and thus maintaining a stable output of olefins. Project Name: Innovative Demonstration Project for Carbon Emission Reduction through the Coupling of Green Hydrogen and Coal Chemical Industry by Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd.
Project Category: According to the “Catalogue for Classified Management of Environmental Impact Assessments of Construction Projects (2021 Edition)”, this project falls under “Coal Processing 252” within “22. Petroleum, Coal, and Other Fuel Processing Industries 25”, as well as “Basic Chemical Raw Material Manufacturing 261” and “Synthetic Material Manufacturing 265” within “23. Chemical Raw Materials and Chemical Products Manufacturing Industry 26”.
Nature of Construction: New construction
Location: Tuk Industrial Project Area, Sulihe Economic Development Zone, Wushen Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Constructor: Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd.
Land Area: 594.43 hectares
Total Number of Employees: 3,500
Total Project Investment: The approved total investment amount is 478,113.7 million yuan, of which 443,110.9 million yuan is allocated to construction costs (including value-added tax), 315,296 million yuan to interest during the construction period, and 34,732 million yuan to working capital. Construction scale: The main facilities to be built include 3 × 2.2 million tons/year methanol plants (including an air separation unit producing 7 × 110,000 Nm3/h of oxygen, units for gasification, shift reaction and heat recovery, as well as low-temperature methanol washing, producing 3 × 562,000 Nm3/h of useful gases (CO + H2), and sulfur recovery units with a capacity of 3 × 65,000 tons/year); 3 × 1 million tons/year methanol-to-olefins plants (including olefin separation units); 3 × 500,000 tons/year polypropylene plants; 3 × 550,000 tons/year polyethylene plants; a plant for producing 1-butene from C4 with a capacity of 200,000 tons/year; and a steam cracking plant with a capacity of 200,000 tons/year. In addition to producing polypropylene and polyethylene, it also produces by-products such as sulfur, heavy naphtha, C5+, ethylene tar, and MTBE. Operating time: 8,000 hours per year. http://img.yf116.cn/image/img/20230511/146405080070.jpg The innovative demonstration project for carbon emission reduction through the integration of green hydrogen and coal chemical processing, carried out by Inner Mongolia Baofeng Coal-based New Materials Co., Ltd., is based on a production capacity of 2.6 million tons per year of olefins from coal. It relies on a separate demonstration project for hydrogen production using wind and solar energy to supply green hydrogen and green oxygen over time. The hydrogen produced is directly used in methanol synthesis units, thereby reducing the load on the conversion and heat recovery systems (conversion involves the reaction of CO with H2O to produce H2 and CO2, in order to achieve the desired H2/CO ratio for subsequent methanol synthesis), and this helps to reduce CO2 emissions from the process system ； The additional oxygen is used as oxygen for gasification, reducing the load on the air separation unit and thereby decreasing the amount of coal fuel required. While keeping the raw coal consumption constant, the production of domestically produced methanol is increased by adding hydrogen and oxygen year by year; by the fifth year of hydrogen supplementation, the output of domestically produced methanol is sufficient to meet the demand for methanol in olefin production, while simultaneously achieving a year-by-year reduction in CO2 emissions. The main process of this project involves pressurized gasification of raw coal using water-coal slurry (in a quenching process), followed by shift reaction and purification to produce purified gas. This purified gas is mixed with hydrogen generated by the integrated demonstration project for hydrogen production from wind and solar energy, to serve as the feed gas for methanol synthesis. MTO-grade methanol is produced through low-pressure methanol synthesis technology, and then polymeric-grade ethylene and propylene are produced via methanol-to-olefins technology. Polyethylene and polypropylene products are obtained by polymerizing polymeric-grade ethylene and propylene respectively. To make rational use of various by-products, the ethane, propane, and saturated light hydrocarbons produced as by-products of olefin separation, as well as those generated from the conversion of C4 materials into 1-butene, are subjected to steam cracking to increase the production of ethylene and propylene ； 1-butene is obtained by separating the mixed C4 produced as a by-product of the olefin separation process, to be used as a raw material for polyethylene production. Once the project is completed and put into operation, it will further extend the industrial chain of the coal chemical circular economy, thereby enabling a transformation of Ordos’ coal resources from being used as fuel to being used as raw materials, and shifting its products from being subject to basic processing to high-end manufacturing. This will help optimize the regional industrial structure and strengthen and expand the industries related to coal-derived olefins and high-end materials.