The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the \"Regulatory Requirements for the Coal-to-Olefins Industry (Draft for Comment)\\"

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Specifications for the Coal-to-Olefins Industry (Draft for Comment) – To promote the sustainable development of the coal-to-olefins industry, regulate industry practices, and establish strict standards for new project construction, these specifications have been formulated in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, following the principles of \"scientific planning, advanced technology, resource conservation, and environmental protection\". These specification conditions apply to projects that produce olefins using coal as the main raw material via methanol (with the amount of methanol produced from coal accounting for more than 50% of the total methanol consumed). I. Industrial Layout (1) Coal-to-olefins projects must comply with **relevant industrial policies and development plans, land use plans, as well as environmental protection and pollution control regulations. (II) Coal-to-olefins projects should determine the site location and the distance from surrounding populations and sensitive areas in a reasonable manner, based on the conclusions of the environmental impact assessment. The external safety protection distance of the installation must meet the requirements specified in the \"**Standards for Personally Acceptable Risk and Socially Acceptable Risk for Chemical Production and Storage Facilities\". (III) It is strictly prohibited to build coal-based olefin projects in legally established nature reserves, water source protection areas, scenic spots, cultural heritage protection areas, and areas of special conservation value. (IV) New coal-to-olefins projects should be located within chemical industrial parks, in line with the park’s overall planning, industry development plans, and relevant environmental impact assessments, and should have favorable resources and transportation conditions. II. Processes and Equipment (1) For newly built and expanded coal-to-olefins projects, it is encouraged to adopt advanced and reliable clean coal gasification, air separation, purification, sulfur recovery, methanol synthesis, methanol-to-olefins, and olefin separation process technologies that possess domestic intellectual property rights. Its key technical parameters shall meet the following requirements: the gasification process shall employ pressurized fluidized bed gasification technology, with a carbon conversion rate of not less than 98% and a cold gas efficiency of not less than 70% ； The oxygen production capacity of a single air separation unit is not less than 60,000 standard cubic meters per hour ； In the purification process, the loss rate of “CO+H2” shall not exceed 0.5% ； The sulfur recovery rate in the sulfur recovery process is not less than 99.5% ； In the methanol synthesis process, the amount of fresh gas consumed per ton of methanol produced is not more than 2250 standard cubic meters ； In the MTO process, no more than 3.06 tons of methanol are consumed per ton of olefins produced, while in the MTP process, no more than 3.50 tons of methanol are consumed per ton of propylene produced ； The olefin separation process ensures an olefin recovery rate of not less than 99.5%. (II) Encourage the use of practical energy-saving technologies such as cogeneration and the utilization of waste heat and pressure, as well as air cooling and closed-loop circulation technologies, in order to reduce overall energy and water consumption and minimize pollutant emissions. (III) The main equipment for coal-based olefins should meet the requirements of energy conservation, environmental protection, and comprehensive resource utilization, in order to achieve a reasonable economic scale. (IV) Encourage the subsequent industrial chains of olefin products to develop in a direction toward differentiation, refinement, and high-end features, in order to increase the added value of these products. III. Resource (Energy) Consumption (1) The statistical scope and calculation methods for energy consumption per unit of coal-based olefins are in accordance with the \"Limits on Energy Consumption per Unit of Coal-Based Olefins\" (GB 30180). The energy and water consumption per unit of output for existing coal-based olefin production facilities should meet the threshold values listed in the table below; it is encouraged to achieve higher levels ； The newly installed units should meet the advanced values shown in the table below. Table: Limits on energy and water consumption per unit of output for enterprises producing coal-based olefins. Entry-level values and advanced values for various indicators: Comprehensive energy consumption per unit of output: tCE/t ≤ 3.5 ≤ 2.5; Comprehensive water consumption per unit of output: t/t ≤ 16 ≤ 12. *: For projects that use coal with high ash and sulfur content, the energy consumption limits can be appropriately relaxed. (II) Coal-based olefin production facilities must carry out energy-saving assessments and reviews in accordance with the requirements of the Energy Conservation Law, and must cooperate with energy conservation supervision agencies in carrying out inspections and audits. IV. Environmental Protection (1) Production enterprises shall abide by laws and regulations such as the Environmental Protection Law, and establish and improve an enterprise environmental protection management system. Manufacturing enterprises shall obtain discharge permits in accordance with the law, and strictly comply with national and local laws, regulations, standards, and requirements set out in discharge permits regarding the emission of wastewater and exhaust gases, noise control, and the prevention and control of pollution from solid waste (including hazardous waste). They must ensure that their emissions meet the prescribed standards and total volume limits, and that waste is disposed of in a lawful and compliant manner. (II) New construction or renovation and expansion projects must strictly implement the environmental impact assessment system. Priority should be given to clean production technologies, processes, and equipment that feature high resource utilization and low pollutant generation. The accompanying environmental protection facilities must be designed, constructed, and put into use simultaneously with the main project. A construction project can be put into formal operation only after passing the environmental protection acceptance inspection upon completion. Before the approval of the environmental impact assessment documents, the project must obtain the total emission quota for major pollutants. Enterprises should monitor resource consumption and waste generation during production and service processes, conduct clean production audits in accordance with the law, and carry out evaluations and inspections to assess the effectiveness of clean production measures. (III) Manufacturing enterprises should control unorganized emissions. Strictly implement separation of clean and polluted water, as well as separation of rainwater and wastewater, and establish measures for the collection of initial rainwater and system switching. Install wastewater treatment facilities, build emergency ponds for accidents, along with systems for isolating and pumping back polluted water, and equip them with monitoring devices for pollution and accidents. (IV) Among various solid wastes such as spent catalysts, catalysts containing precious metals should be recycled; those that cannot be recycled should be handed over to qualified entities for harmless disposal ； General industrial solid waste should be given priority for comprehensive utilization; those that cannot be utilized in this way should be sent to facilities or sites that meet the requirements for the storage and disposal of such waste. (5) New coal-to-olefins production facilities, as well as those that are upgraded or expanded, shall carry out monitoring activities in accordance with the requirements of the environmental impact assessment report (form) and the corresponding approvals, **or local pollutant emission (control) standards and environmental monitoring technical specifications, and shall make environmental information public. (VI) Enterprises should strengthen environmental risk prevention and control, formulate emergency plans for sudden environmental incidents and file them, and promptly report to and effectively respond to such incidents caused by abnormal discharge of waste gas and wastewater, or leaks of materials from facilities. V. Safety, Fire Protection, and Occupational Health (1) Enterprises must comply with laws and regulations related to work safety such as the Work Safety Law, the Fire Protection Law, and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases, and establish and improve work safety responsibility systems as well as relevant rules and regulations ； It shall meet the safety production and occupational health protection requirements stipulated by relevant laws, administrative regulations, and **standards or industry standards. (II) The safety facilities and occupational hazard protection facilities for new projects must be designed, constructed, and put into operation simultaneously with the main project itself. It is necessary to apply to the work safety supervision and management authorities in accordance with the law for registration, review, and completion inspection regarding the implementation of the \"three simultaneities\" principle for occupational health in such construction projects. Enterprises should strictly implement safety assessment and occupational hazard assessment systems, as well as systems for reviewing and approving safety facilities and occupational hazard protection measures, and carry out occupational health monitoring in accordance with the law. Methanol storage areas or other locations where there is a risk of leakage of toxic and harmful gases should be equipped with warning signs indicating occupational health hazards as well as emergency spray systems. (III) Coal-to-olefins manufacturers shall formulate emergency plans for production safety accidents, and assign full-time personnel responsible for safety, environmental protection, and fire control, as well as provide the necessary equipment and facilities. (IV) The production process of newly installed units should employ a distributed control system (DCS) and a separate safety instrumented system (SIS), along with necessary safety monitoring and protection devices. VI. Supervision and management: Before starting up new projects or those undergoing renovation and expansion, it is necessary to have sound safety, environmental protection, fire protection, and first-aid systems in place, as well as all the necessary approval documents from the relevant authorities ； When a project enters trial production, all inspections must be completed within the statutory time frame. VII. Supplementary Provisions (1) These specification requirements apply to all types of coal-to-olefins production enterprises within the People’s Republic of China. (II) In the event that the laws, regulations, and **standards referred to in these specifications are revised, the revised versions shall apply. (III) These specification requirements shall come into effect 30 days after their publication, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shall be responsible for their interpretation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will revise these regulatory requirements in a timely manner, depending on the development of the coal-based olefins industry and the needs of economic and social development.