A total investment of US$100 million! 46,700 tonnes BDO plant proposed in Shandong Province

Recently, the proposed approval of Shandong Tianchen New Material Technology Co., Ltd. 80,500 tons/year fine chemicals project was announced on the relevant website.

The project is being built in two phases with a total investment of US$100 million

The first phase, with an investment of $44 million, is based on methanol, adipic acid and hydrogen as raw materials. The esterification process is used to produce dimethyl adipate by esterifying adipic acid with methanol and then producing 1,6-hexanediol by hydrogenation. New equipment such as an esterification tower, a distillation tower, a hydrogenation reactor and a condenser will be purchased to produce 15,200 tonnes/year of dimethyl adipate and 10,000 tonnes/year of 1,6-hexanediol.

A new hydrogen production plant was installed in Phase I. Methanol and demineralised water are used as raw materials, and the catalytic conversion reaction is used to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide from the catalytic conversion of methanol and demineralised water.The new equipment, such as converters, vaporisers, superheaters, purification towers and PSA adsorption towers, have been purchased to create a production capacity of 992 tonnes/year to meet the hydrogen consumption of the first phase of the project, and the hydrogen is all for self-use.

Phase II Investment US$56 million, using maleic anhydride, methanol and hydrogen as raw materials, the esterification and hydrogenation process is used. Maleic anhydride is first esterified with methanol to produce dimethyl maleate, which is then subjected to a hydrogenation reaction to produce 1,4-butanediol, gamma-butyrolactone and tetrahydrofuran.Acquisition of new reactors, reactor towers, condensers and other equipment to produce 46,700 tonnes/year of 1,4-butanediol, 6,280 tonnes/year of γ-butyrolactone and 2,320 tonnes/year of tetrahydrofuran;A new hydrogen production plant is installed in the second phase, which uses methanol and demineralized water as raw materials and adopts the catalytic conversion reaction method, in which methanol and demineralized water are catalytically converted to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and then purified and obtained high-purity hydrogen by variable pressure adsorption.New equipment such as a reformer, vaporiser, superheater, purification tower and PSA adsorption tower were purchased to create a capacity of 6608 tonnes/year to meet the hydrogen consumption of the Phase II project, with all the hydrogen being used by itself.

Project implementation schedule: The total construction period of the project is 24 months, divided into two phases

Phase I projects: Dimethyl adipate (DMA) and 1,6-hexanediol (HDO) are scheduled to commence construction in December 2022 and be fully completed and in operation by October 2023; the hydrogen project is scheduled to commence construction in December 2022 and be fully completed and in operation by October 2023.

Phase II projects: 1,4-butanediol (BDO), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) are scheduled to commence construction in May 2023 and be fully completed and operational by November 2024; the hydrogen project is scheduled to commence construction in December 2023 and be fully completed and operational by November 2024.