Methanol-to-Aromatics Pilot Unit Successfully Commissioned through Joint Efforts of Huadian Coal Industry Group and Tsinghua University

On January 13, 2013 a 10 kt/a-class commercial test unit for producing aromatics from methanol in fluidized bed jointly developed by the Huadian Coal Industry Group (HCIG) and Tsinghua University with the investment being provided by HCIG, had successfully came online in the Yuheng Coal Chemical Industry Park of Yulin city. The first batch of raw feedstocks has resulted in a methanol conversion of over 99.99%, while the concentration of methylated benzenes (including toluene, xylene and trimethylbenzene) in the oil phase reached over 90%. Till 15 pm on January 15, 2013 the accumulated methanol feed had totaled around 100 metric tons, and the unit has been operating smoothly for 54 hours. This commercial test unit had operated successfully at the first attempt of startup with the material streams passing through all key facilities of the process flow diagram.