The Hunan Petrochemical Biomass Gasification Flexible Platform project is racing to be completed by the end of April

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The Hunan Petrochemical Biomass Gasification Flexible Platform project is on track to be completed by the end of April. According to Hunan Petrochemical, since work resumed on this project on March 4, 2026, the caprolactam production unit and the EPC contractor for the project, Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Company, have stepped up oversight of on-site operations as well as implemented measures to protect against rain during the rainy season, working towards the goal of completing the biomass gasification facility by April 30. Currently, the overall progress of the project is 95.37%, with a total of approximately 290,000 safe working hours achieved to date; over 130 workers are engaged in construction at the site on a daily basis. According to a report from Ningbo Engineering in December 2025, core equipment such as biomass gasification fluidized-bed gasifiers and POX converters has been installed. The core equipment of the project, namely the fluidized bed gasifier and the POX converter, were both manufactured independently by Ningbo Tianyi Manufacturing Company, which is part of Ningbo Engineering Company. The Hunan Petrochemical Biomass Gasification Flexible Platform project utilizes the pressurized circulating fluidized bed (SFBG) and gas-flow bed (SEBG) biomass gasification technologies independently developed by Sinopec. It involves the construction of a biomass gasification unit with a capacity of 100 tons per day using a gas-flow bed technology, as well as another unit with a capacity of 150 tons per day using a fluidized bed technology, thereby creating a flexible testing platform that supports experiments with multiple bed types and various feedstocks. The syngas produced by the project is fed into a synthesis unit to produce liquid ammonia. In 2022, Hunan Petrochemical conducted its first industrial trial run of biomass co-firing in a pulverized coal gasifier, achieving the target of a 10% biomass mixing ratio. Subsequently, Hunan Petrochemical, together with Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Company and other entities, formed a research team to work continuously on this issue. In 2024, a pilot-scale process package capable of handling 100 tons per batch was developed, and it passed the evaluation by Sinopec’s Science and Technology Department; this provided the necessary conditions for building a flexible pilot platform for the gasification of biomass on an industrial scale.