The Ministry of Environmental Protection has once again accepted the environmental impact assessment for Lu’an’s 1.8 million tons per year coal-to-oil project
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The Ministry of Environmental Protection accepts another application for the environmental impact assessment of Lu’an’s 1.8 million-ton coal-to-oil project / Author/Source: Date: 2015-12-21 Clicks: 36. A few days ago, the **Ministry of Environmental Protection officially accepted the second application for approval of the environmental impact assessment report for Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd.’s integrated demonstration project for the clean utilization of high-sulfur coal for oil production, electricity generation, and heating. Previously, in July 2015, the **Ministry of Environmental Protection announced that it would not approve the environmental impact assessment report for Shanxi Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd.’s integrated demonstration project for the clean utilization of high-sulfur coal for oil production, power generation, and heating. On July 17, 2012, the Integrated Demonstration Project for the Clean Utilization of High-Sulfur Coal for Oil, Chemicals, Electricity, and Heat Production by Shanxi Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. received approval for the preliminary work related to the project, as stipulated in Document No. 1988 issued by the Energy Department of the Development and Reform Commission. The contents of the roadmap for development (【Option 1】) are as follows: utilizing coke oven gas and high-sulfur coal to produce a variety of high-value-added products, including systems for gasification and purification, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and refining, conversion of coke oven gas, processing of tar and refining of crude benzene, as well as waste heat power generation. “The construction scale of this project is an annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons of petroleum products and chemicals, along with 108 MW of self-generated waste heat power generation units. To make the production process more scientific, the product designs more rational, and the environmental benefits better, Lu’an Group organized experts to conduct in-depth evaluations of the production processes and product designs, and subsequently made adjustments to the construction plans. Compared with the original plan (【Plan 2】), the adjusted plan eliminates the construction of facilities for coke oven gas conversion, tar processing, and crude benzene refining ； Construct a plant with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of iron-based F-T hydrocarbons through gasification and purification, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and oil refining technologies ； A cobalt-based FTO wax processing plant with an annual production capacity of 800,000 tons was built using purchased raw materials. The construction scale remains at an annual output of 1.8 million tons of petroleum products and chemicals. Following repeated evaluations of [Plan 2] by experts, and in light of the concerns raised by the expert group from the Engineering Assessment Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection regarding the technical and environmental risks associated with constructing an industrial demonstration facility for cobalt-based FTO wax production with a capacity of 800,000 tons per year, the project owner made further adjustments to [Plan 2]. Plan [Plan 3] consists of building, in the first phase, an industrial demonstration facility for iron-based slurry-bed FTO synthesis and oil processing with a capacity of 1 million tons per year; the production scale includes 1 million tons of oils and chemicals per year, as well as a 108 MW waste heat power generation unit. The main components of this facility include gasification units, purification units, FTO synthesis units, oil processing units, waste heat power generation units, and various supporting utility systems ； Phase II involves the construction of a 800,000 tons per year industrial demonstration facility for the processing of cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch wax. The first phase of the project commenced construction on February 28, 2013. By September 2014, the main facilities such as the gasification unit, purification unit, iron-based oil processing units, and iron-based oil synthesis units had been largely completed; the raw coal silos, fuel coal silos, and storage tanks were also finished. The installation of pipelines for circulating water, fire-fighting water, rainwater, and domestic wastewater was completed, the thermal power plant was built, and the main step-down substation was nearly complete. The second phase of the project is still in the feasibility study stage, and the work related to “three connections and one leveling” has not yet begun. The project uses coal with high sulfur, high ash content, and high ash melting point as raw material, and employs the SHELL dry powder gasification process to achieve a technological breakthrough – the world’s first powder gasifier with a capacity of 3,000 tons per day. It also employs the high-temperature slurry-bed F-T oil synthesis technology based on iron, developed by China Science Synthetical Oil with complete independent intellectual property rights; the reactor capacity of 500,000 tons per unit is the highest in the world. http://www.nmtech.com.cn/*nwen_hyyw_xx.asp?path=47&id=174262
Will oil prices rise next year?
:) Keep it up. I hope the project will meet environmental protection standards.
“The construction scale of this project is an annual production of 1.8 million tons of petroleum products and chemicals； Currently, a facility for producing 1 million tons per year of iron-based F-T hydrocarbons is under construction ； Construct a cobalt-based FTO wax processing plant with an annual production capacity of 800,000 tons using purchased raw materials ； In the subsequent phase, a 1 million tons per year iron-based slurry-bed FTO synthesis plant will be built, while in the second phase, an industrial demonstration facility for 800,000 tons per year of cobalt-based FTO wax processing will be constructed ； I can’t understand it……
The first phase of 1 million tons will utilize the iron-based slurry-bed FTO synthesis technology developed by Zhongke Synthetic Oil; this technology is already mature and stable, as three demonstration units with a capacity of 160,000 tons each have been built using it； The 800,000-ton capacity in Phase 2 makes use of the cobalt-based fixed-bed FTO synthesis technology developed through a collaboration between the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Lu’an Group. The main product produced is solid paraffin. Since Lu’an Group is currently capable of producing only 60,000 tons using this cobalt-based fixed-bed technology, scaling up production to 800,000 tons requires time to gain experience, which is why this is planned for Phase 2.
Thank you for the reply, but options 2 and 3 are pretty similar, right?……
Well, more or less. In plan two, it is intended to build 1 million tons and 800,000 tons simultaneously, while in plan three, 1 million tons are to be built first and then 800,000 tons. In reality, the 1 million-ton project is almost complete, while work on the 800,000-ton project has not yet begun.
What has been observed is as follows: 800,000 tons of cobalt-based synthetic wax are outsourced to seven external factories for synthesis, and then those factories take it back for refining. All seven plants outside are old methanol synthesis units that have been converted to FTO synthesis. The gas from the four Shell furnaces is only sufficient for 1 million tons of iron-based synthesis. I heard that over 5 billion was invested in the gasification process; if such facilities can be profitable, then other projects should be even more profitable.
Now that you’ve explained it, I totally understand. The first phase of Lu’an’s currently operational methanol-to-oil project, which features a 60,000-ton-per-year cobalt-based fixed-bed FTO synthesis unit, was established by converting an existing methanol plant; there is also a 60,000-ton-per-year facility in the second phase ； 800,000 tons of cobalt-based FTO wax are broken down into 7 methanol plants; each plant thus has a capacity of around 100,000 tons. These can be set up alongside the existing two plants with a capacity of 60,000 tons each, eliminating the issue of scaling up the technology. No wonder I couldn’t understand at first what was meant by “purchased externally” for the wax in that project. At first, I thought they were also going to pursue GTL cobalt-based fixed-bed Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on a scale of several hundred thousand tons, similar to Shell’s approach.
The expert group has reviewed the \"Environmental Impact Assessment for the Integrated Demonstration Project of Clean Utilization of High-Sulfur Coal for Oil, Chemical, Power, and Heat Production by Shanxi Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd.\"