The MTP Process Technology Upgrade Project of CHN Energy Ningxia Coal Industry in northwestern China reached another major milestone on October 16. The reactor head and core components of the world's first and largest single-train 3.6-million-ton-per-year DMTO-III methanol-to-olefins unit were precisely hoisted into place. This marked the successful completion of the hoisting of the unit's "heart"—the reactor and regenerator—setting multiple new records for construction and equipment in the coal chemical industry.
Reactor head of the methanol-to-olefins unit at Ningxia Coal Industry
The reactor and regenerator hoisted in this operation are key pieces of equipment at the heart of the project's methanol-to-olefins unit. They are exceptionally large, precisely engineered and extremely challenging to install. After 100 days of intensive work, the project team successfully completed the entire sequence of operations, including the transportation of oversized equipment and coordinated lifting by two cranes. The work was completed nearly 60 days ahead of the schedule for comparable domestic units of the same scale, setting a record for the shortest welding and installation period among similar units.
The project has set three new industry records. First, leveraging third-generation methanol-to-olefins technology developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which holds independent intellectual property rights, it has delivered the world's largest single-train DMTO-III methanol-to-olefins reactor-regenerator unit, with a capacity of 3.6 million tons per year. Its domestically developed core technology places China at the forefront of the coal chemical industry. Second, the project features the heaviest single reactor ever installed in a methanol-to-olefins unit of its type worldwide.
The reactor has a maximum diameter of 19.2 meters, a total height of 40.1 meters and a total weight of 2,658.135 tons, including its lining. It houses 54 high-precision cyclone separators, setting new industry benchmarks for equipment size and load-bearing performance. Third, the project team completed the installation of this type of large-scale reactor-regenerator unit in just 100 days, establishing a new industry benchmark for the shortest construction period.
Once completed and operational, the project will efficiently convert methanol into ethylene and propylene, two essential feedstocks for the chemical industry. It will continue to drive the transformation and upgrading of the coal chemical industry and help advance China's coal-based new materials sector toward higher-end, greener development.
