The Shenhua Ten-Million-Ton-Class MTO and Derivatives Project Has Been Approved by The State Development and Reform Commission

According to the news released on March 24, 2015 by the Shaanxi People’s Government Website, the Shenhua recycle-economy project for comprehensive utilization of coal at Yulin had been approved on March 16, 2015 by the State Development and Reform Commission (as evidenced by the SDRC document [Energy 2015] No. 508).

This project, which is a major demonstration project for deep processing of coal envisaged in the state plan, is located in the northern region of the Clear Water Coal Chemical Industry Park at the Yushen Industrial District of Yulin city. The investment in this project totals 121.6 billion RMB, and the construction items cover mainly a coal mine with a production capacity of 13 Mt/a, a 700-MW cogen project, and other 23 chemical units including such processes as coal gasification, methanol synthesis, methanol-based olefins production (MTO), and olefin derivatives production. The product slate of this project is aimed at specialty chemicals, which cover four product lines, viz.: ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, acrylic acid and butanol/octanol products to manufacture more than one hundred brands derived from ten kinds of alcohols, acids, esters, amines and ethers.

This project will embody the world’s advanced techniques. The process technologies adopted by the 23 process units to be constructed are in the world’s front rank. The process units for manufacture of propylene oxide, ethanolamine/ ethylidene amine, polyether polyol and mixed glycol ether are major commercial units that are for the first time licensed to China to greatly raise the technical level for the production of olefins-based downstream fine chemicals to a higher rung.