NDRC approves Fuxin coal gasification project

FUXIN, CHINA - China Datang Corporation's coal gasification project in the city of Fuxin, in the Liaoning province, received approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China Datang recently announced.

The project will have an annual production capacity of 4 billion cubic meters of gas through coal gasification, as well as 509,000 metric tons of tar; 101,000 metric tons of naphtha; 58,000 metric tons of crude hydroxybenzene; 114,000 metric tons of sulfur; and 188,000 metric tons of ammonium sulfate in a year. Total investment in the project will be about $3.6 billion.

As a support facility to the project, a natural gas pipeline from the plant area to Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning, together with branches from Shenyang to Benxi, Shenyang to Tieling, and Tieling to Fushun, totaling 334 kilometers in length, will be built.

The project will be built and operated by Datang Energy Resources Chemical Company Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of China Datang Corporation that was established for its energy and chemical businesses in June 2009.

As reported, the project will use processing technologies, including pressurized gasification, crude-gas cooling, low-temperature methanol purification, sulfur recovery, methanation, and wastewater comprehensive utilization. The scope of the project is mainly comprised of 48 sets of pressurized fine-coal gasifiers, six low-temperature methanol purification devices, three sets of methanation devices, eight sets of 470-ton-per-hour high-pressure boilers, two 50-megawatt (MW) pump-condensing direct air-cooling generators and three 30-MW back-pressure units.

China Datang Corporation has signed supply agreements with urban gas companies in five cities in Liaoning. Land acquisition and site preparation are under way. Construction of the project is expected to officially begin in the second quarter of this year.