【Weekly Topic】Gasification configuration issues for this ethylene glycol project
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There is currently a 300,000 tons per year ethylene glycol project, and a single furnace of a certain type of pulverized coal fluidized bed gasifier can meet the requirements. However, expert reviews indicate that it will be difficult to ensure full-load, stable operation of a single furnace in actual use; it is better to install two coal-fired furnaces, with the excess syngas being used to produce methanol under normal conditions. Do you have any suggestions or comments on this setting? Firstly, small-scale methanol production is **not in line with policies**.
In terms of stable operation, two reactors certainly provide more stability than one reactor. With a single reactor, even a minor fluctuation in the system can lead to the shutdown of the entire system, whereas this concern does not exist when two reactors are in operation.
It’s likely difficult to get approval for small methanol units; can’t small furnaces be used instead?
Choosing a single gasification furnace with stable and reliable operation is sufficient to ensure steady production; there is no design concept in this system that calls for adding an additional gasification furnace solely for that purpose. Adding another pulverized coal gasification furnace would increase the investment in the gasification facility by at least 300 million yuan (excluding investments in utility systems such as air separation, heat power generation, purification, circulating water systems, substations, and wastewater treatment).
Some experts are not very familiar with the actual production conditions either; they rely on their own assumptions, believing that the several Shell reactors in Henan are all used for producing methanol, and that each plant operates with a single reactor without any problems.
It’s not that there are no problems at all, but when problems do arise, there’s nothing that can be done – one can only get out of the vehicle
The question people are asking is whether there are more cases of load reduction or direct shutdowns? Can producing ethylene glycol and methanol simultaneously in a single furnace not also effectively avoid the problem of unstable furnace load?
Current gasification technologies are becoming increasingly mature, so it is sufficient to choose large-scale gasification technologies that operate stably. Most of the ethylene glycol projects currently under construction are designed to operate with a single furnace; the original poster can go and inspect the sites of existing ethylene glycol projects.
Two furnaces are of course the best option, as they help ensure the stable operation of the system; if you use the same furnace, you can achieve a urea production rate of 30/52!