Recently, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 1 million tons/year coal-to-oil demonstration project of Yitai Yili Energy Co., Ltd. was held in the Yinan Industrial Park of Chabuchar Xibe Autonomous County, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, marking the official entry of this national-level demonstration project for clean and efficient coal utilization into a new phase of comprehensive construction.

The total investment of this project amounts to 21.043 billion yuan. Located in the Yinan Industrial Park of Chabuchar Xibe Autonomous County in Xinjiang, it is being constructed in two phases. The first phase involves the coal-to-oil unit, which is scheduled to commence commissioning and formal production in early 2027. The second phase, the industrial chain extension project, is slated for completion in June 2028. The annual production capacity of alkylbenzene, higher alcohols, high-quality light hydrocarbons, Fischer-Tropsch wax, normal C10-14, white oil, liquid paraffin, liquefied petroleum gas, and other products will total 1.0582 million tons, with by-products including mixed alcohols and sulfur. The main works primarily encompass production facilities such as air separation, coal gasification, purification, oil synthesis, tail gas hydrogen production, and oil processing. Supporting facilities include public and auxiliary projects like thermal power stations, water purification plants, and circulating water systems, storage and transportation projects like coal bunkers and storage tanks, as well as environmental protection projects such as wastewater treatment and reuse systems.

It is understood that this project is a key project of the national energy security strategy and a key demonstration project for the clean and efficient utilization of coal. It is being constructed by Yitai Yili Energy Co., Ltd., with Yitai B-shares holding 90.2% of the shares and Yitai Group holding 9.8%. Leveraging the advantages of coal and water resources in Yili, the project adopts the core technology of Sino-Kuwait synthetic oil to establish a complete production system encompassing "coal gasification + purification + high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis + oil refining + industrial chain extension".

Currently, the project design progress has reached 90%, and the overall construction progress is at 60%. The core equipment is being gradually installed. In the next step, all parties will unite their efforts to ensure the commissioning goal is achieved on schedule in 2027. The raw material coal for the project comes from the supporting coal mine, with obvious cost advantages. After reaching full capacity, the annual output value is expected to be 8.2 billion yuan, with annual taxes and fees of 2.2 billion yuan. It will directly create 2,200 jobs and indirectly create about 10,000 jobs, driving the upgrading of the Yili energy and chemical industry cluster and upstream and downstream industries. (This article is sourced from Seetao's official website www.seetao.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Please indicate Seetao + the original link when reproducing.) Seetao International Column Editor/Wang Xia