Lurgi coal-to-plastics breakthrough in China
4 Jan 2007
Two 500-ktpa polypropylene plants will be the first to use the company’s coal-to-plastics technology
Frankfurt, Germany – Lurgi AG has won two contracts in China that mark the first commercial plants to be based on its technology for the production of plastics from coal. The contracts are worth well over Euro100 million to Lurgi, while the projects each represent a total capital investment amounts of over Euro1 billion, the Frankfurt-based company said.
The contracts with Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG) involve plant complexes that will each produce around 500 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of polypropylene from coal. The facilities are due to go on stream in late 2008 and early 2009, respectively.
Both projects for building the world’s largest propylene plants comprise the technology license, engineering services as well as the supply of special equipment, according to a Lurgi press statement. The new plants will employ Lurgi technologies for raw gas conditioning, the synthesis 5,000 tons/day of methanol – via Lurgi’s MegaMethanol process—as well as the company’s MTP process.
“The application in China of Lurgi’s key technology allows, for the first time, the commercial production of plastics directly from coal. This is the breakthrough for the industrial application of our technology,” said Klaus Moll, Lurgi chairman. “It is of high strategic value mainly for countries like the US, China or Australia which themselves have vast coal reserves.”
Lurgi claims to be the world market leader in technologies to produce methanol from natural gas and coal-based synthesis gas. More than 65% of the world’s methanol output and over 80% of the methanol production plants in China currently in operation and under construction are based on Lurgi technology.
