【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 2005 to 2023: Germany-made 38,500 tubular maleic anhydride reactors for Wanhua Chemical
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This post was last edited by Desert Fish on 2023-7-7 at 14:50. In March 2023, MAN Energy Solutions built the world’s largest molten salt reactor for China’s Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Wanhua Chemical”), to be used in its new maleic anhydride plant for the production of biodegradable plastics. Each of these reactors weighs 655 tons, and they have been loaded onto the 135-meter-long ship \"Excelsior\". These reactors will set off from Regensburg in Germany, travel along the Danube to the port of Constanța in Romania, and then be transported by ocean-going ships to their destination – Yantai City in Shandong Province. Each reactor is nearly 7 meters tall and about 12 meters in diameter, and consists of 38,500 tubes. Wanhua Chemical will use these three molten salt reactors to produce maleic anhydride. This chemical product is used to produce PBAT (polybutylene terephthalate), a raw material for biodegradable plastics. This partnership will help Wanhua Chemical build one of the largest maleic anhydride plants in the world, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons.
Norbert Anger, the site manager at MAN Regensburg, said, “This molten salt reactor can have an annual production capacity of 67,000 metric tons; it is the largest molten salt reactor ever built to date.” At present, only MAN possesses the specialized technology and outstanding capabilities to build such large reactor systems. ” Each reactor is nearly 7 meters tall and about 12 meters in diameter, and consists of 38,500 tubes. By adjusting the pipe diameter, the power consumption of this system can be optimized, resulting in more efficient process performance and a reduced pressure drop across the catalyst bed (the pressure decrease that occurs due to energy loss as fluid flows through the pipes). The operating temperature of the reactor can reach up to 450°C. However, thanks to the excellent temperature control of the DWE reactor, the operating conditions for the 38,500 tubes are nearly identical, thereby maximizing yield and selectivity. It is understood that as industrial production increases its use of sustainable packaging materials, demand for maleic anhydride in China is expected to keep rising in the coming years. Plastics produced from PBAT are biodegradable; when buried in soil, they are broken down by microorganisms in nature such as fungi, algae, and bacteria, without leaving any toxic or harmful substances behind.
World number one for three months
【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】PEM electrolyzers with a capacity of 250 standard cubic meters per hour per megawatt, designed for customized hydrogen production, from 2006 to 2023. https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-4302126-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum)
It can be compared with a few recently installed ones