China’s Coal-to-Ethanol Technology Enters an Industrialization Era Rated at 1.0 Mt/a

On November 13, 2018 the Xinjiang Tianye Group Co.,Ltd. had signed an agreement for using the patented technology on the construction of the phase I of the 1.2 Mt/a coal-to-ethanol project (0.6 Mt/a coal-to-ethanol project) licensed by the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), which has symbolized the official emergence of an era of commercial 1.0 Mt/a coal-toethanol units to prop up the industry for development of downstream coal-based ethanol products.

The proprietary technology for manufacture of anhydrous ethanol through carbonylation of coal-based dimethyl ether (DMTE) is jointly developed by DICP and the Yanchang Petroleum Group to hold sway over independent intellectual property rights. All pieces of equipment included in the process flow diagram of an 100 kt/a coal-to-ethanol commercial demonstration unit constructed on the basis of the said technology were successfully operated on January 11, 2017. Till now the unit has been running smoothly with all technical indicators reaching or exceeding the design targets. The quality of the E10 ethanol gasoline (gasohol) using the ethanol delivered by the said 100 kt/a demonstration unit serving as a blending component has been certified by the (Henan) National Petroleum Fuels Supervision and Inspection Center as being in compliance with the national standard GB18351-2015.