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Progress on the Construction of Sinopec Zijin’s 500,000-ton/year PGA (Polyglycolic Acid) Plant / Author/Source: Energy & Chemical Industry News / Date: May 1, 2023 / Clicks: 64. On April 28th, with the sound of explosions coming from Sections 2 and 3 of the land-clearing work for Sinopec Zijin’s 500,000-ton/year PGA plant, it was marked that all blasting operations related to the land-clearing phase of this project had been completed. The Guizhou Energy Chemical Polyglycolic Acid (PGA) project is located in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, with the first phase involving the construction of a PGA production facility with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons. The site is located in an east-west oriented valley shaped like a circular chair; it is in a hilly area with uneven terrain. To level the site, more than 21 million cubic meters of earth and rock need to be excavated and backfilled. ✦ Since the first blasting operation was carried out at Grey Rock Mountain on December 21, 2021, the blasting work for the site leveling phase of the PGA project lasted 17 months, or 494 days in total. A total of 487 blasting operations were conducted safely, using **1,962 tons of explosives and 67,626 detonators; 7.2012 million cubic meters of earth and rock were removed through blasting. ✦ The company regards blasting operations as a top priority in site leveling projects. Blasting work is carried out through professional subcontracting, with strict scrutiny of the qualifications of subcontractors to ensure only qualified blasting firms are used. ✦It is necessary to earnestly implement the dual-prevention mechanism of risk control and hazard identification and remediation. By adopting measures such as risk grading for blasting operations, planning and scheduling, verification of safety conditions, centralized command, focus on key control points, drone inspections, and timely summarization and analysis, overall control over the entire blasting process can be enhanced, thereby taking a comprehensive approach to ensuring safety. Compliance with laws and regulations and standardized procedures ensure the safety of blasting operations. It is expected that all work on the site leveling project will be completed by June this year. Sinopec’s 500,000 tons per year polylactic acid project is a model initiative by Sinopec to advance cutting-edge coal chemical technologies toward industrial application, and it serves as a landmark project for Guizhou Province in achieving new forms of industrialization and rural revitalization. The project is located in Zhijin County, Bijie City, which is situated in the upper reaches of the Wujiang River and boasts abundant mineral resources. Sinopec and Guizhou Province have made full use of their respective strengths to deepen their strategic cooperation, and on November 25, 2020, they signed a \"Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement for Comprehensively Promoting High-Quality Development.\" The total investment amounts to approximately 23 billion yuan, of which the investment for the first phase is around 11 billion yuan. This phase will enable an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of polyglycolic acid, with completion expected in 2024 ； The annual sales revenue of the product is expected to reach 3.15 billion yuan. Phase 2 will achieve a polylactic acid production capacity of 300,000 tons per year, with completion scheduled for 2026. The project includes a gas gasification unit, a gas cryogenic separation unit, coupling and hydrogenation units, and a polyglycolic acid production unit; it is also equipped with a combined heat and power generation unit and an air separation unit. The raw coal is processed through coal pulverization, gasification, shift reaction, purification, and cryogenic separation to produce purified gases of CO and H2, which serve as feedstocks for downstream coupling and hydrogenation units; the acidic gases generated by the gasification unit are used to produce sulfur. Methyl nitrite produced from methanol, nitric acid, and sodium nitrite is coupled with CO to yield dimethyl oxalate and the by-product dimethyl carbonate (which is sold). Dimethyl oxalate is partially hydrogenated to produce methyl glycolate, methanol, and crude ethylene glycol (all of which are sold); methanol is separated and reused. Methyl glycolate enters a polyglycolic acid production facility where it undergoes polymerization and depolymerization to yield lactide, which is then ring-opened polymerized to produce high-molecular-weight polyglycolic acid (the main product). Sinopec Guizhou Energy Chemical Company was established jointly by Great Wall Energy Chemical Co., Ltd. (with a 99% stake) and Bijie Zhijin New Area Biyun Construction Investment and Development Co., Ltd. (with a 1% stake). The 500,000 tons per year polyglycolic acid (PGA) production project is a key project under Guizhou Province’s 14th Five-Year Development Plan, as well as a model project for Sinopec in advancing cutting-edge coal chemical technologies toward industrial application. It is located in the new energy and chemical industry base in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province.