Solutions to Advance China's CTO Sustainable Development   

By Lily Wang   

The Chinese government supports the coal based chemicals development to use the nation's large coal reserves and reduce the heavy dependence on imported oil for olefins and on imported polymers that are structural deficit in the Chinese market.
   Two of the three demonstrative factories making olefins from coal have completed up in Baotou of Inner Mongolia region and in Ningdong, Yinchuan, Ningxia region respectively. The Baotou plant has a capacity of 600 000 t/a olefins, and the Ningdong plant has a capacity of 520 000 t/a propylene. The third one in Duolun, Inner Mongolia is slated to come on stream at the end of 2010, with a capacity of 460 000 t/a propylene.
   But it is necessary for the government and investors to see details on economic and environmental assessments of the three factories.
   Definitely, the coal to olefins (CTO) industry in China comes with some significant challenges in technology maturity, capital, energy and water supplies, unbalanced locations between coal reserves and consumption market as well as carbon dioxide management.
  Total, a France-based company, gave its answers at the 2nd Coal to Olefins 2010 held in Beijing November 22 - 23. The company introduced advanced MTO/OCP (methanol to olefins/olefin cracking process) technology, which is jointly developed with UOP. The process has features of high yields of olefins and industrial scale-up. Eric Duchesne, Research & Technology Manage, Total Petrochemical also said in his report that total can provide integrated water cycle management and expertise on carbon dioxide sequestration.
   Just November 4th, Total signed with China Power Investment Corp concerning a proposed MTO plant in Inner Mongolia with OCP technology.
   Another speaker at the conference, Mr. Chen Wei, Group Key Account Manager, Sud-Chemie, stressed the key roles of catalyst for high yields of olefins and economic performance in the course of MTO production and operation.
   With the growing demand for polymers in the Chinese market driven by automobile industry and ongoing urbanization, CTO downstream products will show a booming market prospect in the next five years, said Liu Yanwei, Vice Chief Engineer, National Petroleum & Chemical Planning Institute.
   Rich coal and water resource sites will enable CTO plants to sharpen its competitiveness by using advanced technologies and backward integrated production, said Xia Lei, GM of ASIACHEM Consulting, sponsor of the conference.