Xinjiang Tianye Phase I
As the leading syngas-to-ethylene glycol plant in China, Xinjiang Tianye Phase I project started in July 2011 and production of high-grade EG was achieved by January 2013. In 2014, the plant load steadily increased to 100%, with rate of producing high-grade ethylene glycol exceeded 92%, and product purity surpassed the national standards. The plant has operated continuously for more than four years and achieved industrial operation that meets the standards for safety, stability, long-term operation, full-load capacity, and quality excellence.
The catalysts used in this technology are all produced and supplied by HighChem. HighChem catalyst passed the evaluation test of Ube Industries Co., Ltd. with catalyst properties comparable to those of industrial counterparts.
As of October 2017, HighChem catalyst has been used continuously for more than 47 months with selectivity maintained above 99% and STY of 600 g/l cat.h. First generation catalyst life reached longer than 4 years, which is far longer than any other similar catalysts in industry. Second generation catalysts have been used continuously for 22 months as of January 2016 showing even a better performance than previous generation. The single-furnace EG synthesis catalysts have been used continuously for more than 28 months with operating temperatures of 180ºC to 185ºC and selectivity of 98% to 98.5%. Expected catalyst life is more than 1.5 times the life of similar catalysts in industry.
Xinjiang Tianye Phase II
Phase II of the project was successfully started on March 8, 2015, with production load on the first day of operation reaching above 90%. Phase II plant is now operating stably and producing polyester-grade ethylene glycol. It is the second SEG® licensed plant in China and its successful operation is a joint effort of HighChem and Ube Industries. With HighChem’s active collaboration with customer, production of polyester-grade ethylene glycol was achieved during 10 days of operation startup. Project of 50000 ton/yr SEG® glycol synthesized by calcium carbide tail gas of Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd. is highly rated as a mature and reliable project operation up to industrial standards.
With positive feedback from Tianye Phase I and II projects, Xinjiang Tianye signed a contract for its Phase III technology transfer of 600,000 t/yr ethylene glycol with HighChem in 2017.
YQCIG Shouyang Phase I
The test run of YQCIG Shouyang project was carried out on October 23, 2016, and the plant produced high-grade ethylene glycol on November 16, 2016. The project used coal as raw material, and high-grade ethylene glycol with purity of 99.96% was produced via coal water slurry gasification, purification, CO/H2cryogenic separation, DMO synthetic distillation, and ethylene glycol synthesis & distillation. On September 1, 2017, 200,000 ton/yr ethylene glycol unit of Shouyang Chemical successfully passed the performance examination and 72-hour acceptance inspection at full load to achieve single-day production of 675.89 tons of ethylene glycol, including 619.76 tons of high-grade product, which exceeded the originally designed output by nearly 20 tons. Its qualified products output reached 100%.
