【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】168-2021: China’s First Fluidized Bed Methanol to Polypropylene (FMTP) Plant

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This post was last edited by Desert Fish on 2023-7-21 07:34. On December 31, 2021, Tianchen Company successfully carried out the initial feeding process for China’s first fluidized bed methanol-to-propylene (FMTP) plant, which is owned by Gansu Huating Coal Industry Group! ! ! This project is a technology demonstration facility for converting 600,000 tons of methanol into 200,000 tons of polypropylene using a fluidized bed process, based on the core technologies of the Reaction Engineering Laboratory (FLOTU) at Tsinghua University’s Department of Chemical Engineering. It represents China’s first fluidized-bed methanol-to-propylene plant, having gone through 23 years of research and development as well as engineering work. Based on over 20 years of research, the research group led by Professor Wei Fei from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University has developed a fluidized-bed methanol-to-propylene technology, using interfacial SAPO molecular sieves as catalysts and building upon the efficient conversion techniques for ethylene, butylene, and higher-carbon alkenes into propylene. First, the methanol to olefins reaction is carried out in a fluidized bed reactor, while in another reactor the conversion of the separated ethylene and butylene into propylene takes place, ultimately yielding propylene as the product. In 2009, this process successfully completed an industrial-scale trial with a capacity of 30,000 tons per year, marking the success in the development of industrial core technology for FMTP with independent intellectual property rights; the carbon-based yield of propylene reached over 72%. In 2012, the construction of a 600,000-ton/year fluidized-bed methanol to propylene (FMTP) technology demonstration project was launched at Huaning Huating Coal Industry in China, with China Tianchen Engineering Co., Ltd. serving as the general contractor. Since the official commencement of the project, all members of Tianchen Company’s Huating FMTP Technology Demonstration Project Team have worked tirelessly, successfully completing various milestone tasks such as the installation of large-scale equipment, the installation and pressure testing of process pipelines, electrical and instrumentation debugging, the commissioning of the unit, fluidization tests of the three related devices, and the mechanical completion of the project. These efforts ensured that the project’s trial operation was successful from the first attempt. A successful feed addition for this project has laid a solid foundation for the consistent production of high-quality polypropylene products. It holds great significance for extending the coal chemical industry chain and promoting the sustainable, healthy, green, and circular development of the modern coal chemical industry.