Methanol Project Starts Production in Daqing
The 100 000  t/a  methanol  project  has  recently  started
  production  in  the  Chemical  General  Plant  of  Daqing
Petroleum Management Bureau. It is the first major project
after the founding of China Petroleum Corporation.
The project started construction in April 1996. The  design
capacity is 100 000 t/a methanol and 7 000 m3/h  hydrogen.
The total investment is 450 million yuan.  The  technology
of steam conversion and low-pressure synthesis used in the
project is at the advanced  domestic  level  and  has  the
features of low energy consumption, high  product  quality
and no environmental pollution. The raw  material  natural
gas in the chemical general plant can therefore  be  fully
utilized. Hydrogen produced by swing  pressure  adsorption
can be supplied to the isoparaffin unit. It can  not  only
  eliminate  the  need  of  constructing  another  hydrogen
preparation unit, but also solve the problem of unbalanced
hydrogen-carbon ratio in methanol production using natural
gas as raw material, increase the output of  methanol  and
reduce the production cost. The hydrogen preparation  unit
uses converted gas as raw material, and  hydrogen  can  be
processed to a purity of 99.9% by synthesis,  distillation
and swing pressure adsorption. After the unit has  started
production, the  methanol  capacity  of  Daqing  Petroleum
Management Bureau will reach 160  000  t/a,   holding  the
third  place  in  China.   The  product  has  reached  the
international AA grade.