From July 21 to 23, the 2021 China Nitrogen Fertilizer and Methanol Technology Conference, hosted by the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, was held in Jincheng, Shanxi. At the conference, Yu Kuangshi, General Manager of CAS Hefei Coal Gasification Company under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented a report on the “Circulating Fluidized Bed Coal Gasification Technology for Synthetic Gas System Solutions.” The report highlighted the successful application of this technology at Xinjiang Yihua Chemical Co., Ltd.’s 400,000-ton/year synthetic ammonia plant, which achieves 100% use of locally sourced Junggar coal from Xinjiang. The technology fully overcomes challenges related to this coal’s high alkalinity, low ash content, low ash melting point, and special sticky properties. To date, the system has operated continuously and stably for 182 days on a single furnace.
Source: China Chemical Industry News
Producing Synthetic Ammonia from Zhundong Coal and Recycling Carbon Dioxide as Gasifying Agent
From July 21 to 23, the 2021 China Nitrogen Fertilizer and Methanol Technology Conference, hosted by the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, was held in Jincheng, Shanxi. At the conference, Yu Kuangshi, General Manager of CAS Hefei Coal Gasification Company under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented a report on the “Circulating Fluidized Bed Coal Gasification Technology for Synthetic Gas System Solutions.” The report highlighted the successful application of this technology at Xinjiang Yihua Chemical Co., Ltd.’s 400,000-ton/year synthetic ammonia plant, which achieves 100% use of locally sourced Junggar coal from Xinjiang. The technology fully overcomes challenges related to this coal’s high alkalinity, low ash content, low ash melting point, and special sticky properties. To date, the system has operated continuously and stably for 182 days on a single furnace.
The successful implementation enables Xinjiang Yihua to maximize its own coal resources, providing a highly competitive raw material foundation for downstream carbon-fixed products like melamine.
According to Zhang Zhonghua, Party Secretary of Xinjiang Yihua, the company is the first chemical enterprise in the Junggar Economic and Technological Development Zone to realize local resource conversion, supported by an open-pit coal mine with reserves of 2.2 billion tons and an annual extraction capacity of 20 million tons. Coal costs are kept below 100 RMB/ton. Leveraging its coal resources, the company introduced technology from Italy’s OCI in 2014 to build the world’s first fourth-generation high-pressure melamine plant with an annual capacity of 80,000 tons. After adopting the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Engineering Thermophysics’ circulating fluidized bed gasification technology in 2019, Xinjiang Yihua effectively solved the industry’s challenge of efficiently and cleanly utilizing Junggar coal for synthetic ammonia production. Additionally, recovered CO₂ is used as a gasifying agent, significantly reducing carbon emissions and enhancing the competitiveness of melamine products.
Zhang Zhonghua stated that the breakthrough in coal gasification technology has injected new momentum into the company’s green development. Over the next five to ten years, Xinjiang Yihua plans to develop a 1-million-ton/year melamine project to achieve low-emission coal conversion and actively support China’s national “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” goals. The project is currently included in the key plans and major projects list of the Junggar Economic and Technological Development Zone and is progressing steadily.
