Engineering & Construction: A New Lurgi-MTP® Unit for China

In today’s crude-constrained world, Lurgi´s Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP)  technology offers a highly profitable route particularly in China, given its tremendous coal reserves and its rapid deployment of coal-based production of chemicals and fuels. Hence, Air Liquide Engineering & Construction is one of the major players on this market to satisfy the increasing demand of coal-based chemicals and to provide solutions both in terms of efficiency and environment protection.

Today, Air Liquide is pleased to announce that its Engineering & Construction division has signed a contract with the Shenhua Ningxia  Coal Industry Group (SNCG) in China, one of the world’s largest coal
industrials, to build a 500,000 tpa Methanol-to-Propylene (MTP) plant, following the successful commissioning of the first industrial scale unit built with the same client.

The contract comprises the basic engineering, license and supply of proprietary equipment as well as services for procurement and technical advisory services at the site. This will be the third large-scale MTP plant licensed by Lurgi. SNCG, in close cooperation with the Lurgi team, played an important and constructive role in the commissioning and startup phases of the MTP-1 first of a kind plant, thereby contributing to proving at industrial scale the success of the Lurgi MTP technology.

In this context SNCG and Air Liquide signed a cooperation agreement that includes the continuous improvement and further development of the Lurgi MTP technology. Moreover, SNCG agreed to support the marketing of this technology in China and to support Air Liquide’ Engineering & Construction division with its own start-up and operational expertise. Air Liquide will remain the sole owner and licensor of the Lurgi MTP technology.

The unit to be built in Ningdong, in the Chinese province of Ningxia, will have the capacity to produce around 500,000 tpa propylene from coal. The engineering phase for the contract is to be completed within about 8 months.

François Venet, chairman of the E&C committee declared: “The MTP technology offers very promising perspectives to fight the world´s dependency on crude oil. Today, thanks to its cost-efficient and state-of-the-art technology Air Liquide is well positioned to play a major role mastering environmental challenges. We are proud to be able to contribute to SNCG’s responsible and rapid development thanks to Lurgi’s strong relationship with SNCG and the mutual reliability and trust which are major factors for continuing our fruitful collaboration today.”