Engineering transaction and commencement dynamics

On April 8, 2026, Sanhua Construction Xinjiang Tianchi Energy Co., Ltd.'s Zhundong 2 billion Nm ³/year coal to natural gas project air separation, methane liquefaction, and LNG engineering installation engineering Xinjiang branch issued a transaction announcement, and Anhui Yuda Construction Labor Service Co., Ltd. successfully won the bid. On September 20, 2025, the colorful smoke in the Jiangjunmiao Industrial Park of Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone soared, and the 2 billion cubic meters/year coal to natural gas project of TBEA Xinjiang Zhuneng Chemical Co., Ltd. officially broke ground.

Strategic positioning and advantages of green technology

This project is a key layout for Xinjiang to build a national energy and resource strategic guarantee base, strengthen the Zhundong national coal, electricity, and coal chemical industry base, and is also an important measure to strengthen national energy security and consolidate the West East Gas Pipeline Project. The total investment of the project is 17 billion yuan, covering an area of 197 hectares, including core main equipment such as air separation, coal gasification, purification, and methane conversion. The entire process adopts international top-notch technology, and the unit energy consumption, water consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions are all better than domestic standards, achieving ultra-low emissions.

Ding Zhibo, Deputy General Manager of TBEA Tianchi Energy Company and Commander in Chief of Zhuneng Chemical Project, introduced that the project innovatively adopts fixed bed slag gasification process and CCUS-EOR/CCS technology, fully promoting the green transformation of the coal chemical industry and enhancing its core competitiveness. At the same time, a green electricity hydrogen production system will be built to construct a multi energy coupling system of light electricity hydrogen carbon, reducing the carbon emission intensity of the entire coal chemical process by more than 30%, and helping the industry move towards high-end, intelligent, and green development.

Construction progress and production demonstration layout

With the support of the Party Committee, Government, and various levels of departments in the autonomous region, the project has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment for environmental impact assessment. It is planned to complete the construction of the main equipment foundation by the end of 2025, be completed by the end of 2026, and be fully operational and effective by 2027. The project uses coal as raw material, undergoes fixed bed slag gasification, transformation, low-temperature methanol washing purification to generate synthesis gas, and then undergoes methane reaction to produce 2 billion cubic meters of synthetic natural gas annually, while producing crude phenol and crude benzene as by-products; The hydrogen required for production is produced by electrolyzing water, and the oxygen produced by electrolysis is used for wastewater treatment. The entire production process includes gasification, purification, hydrogen production, carbon capture, and other units.

Core demonstration tasks of the project

Carry out industrial demonstration of fixed bed slag gasification of high alkali metal coal in Zhundong, using a large gasifier with a pressure of 4.5 MPa and an inner diameter of 3.8 meters. The effective methane content of the gas is about 8%, reducing the processing load of subsequent processes. Promote large-scale industrial demonstration of independent methane conversion technology, adopt wide temperature conversion+reactor series parallel process, increase the production capacity of single series devices to 2 billion cubic meters per year, and achieve energy conservation and production increase. Keywords: Xinjiang, coal to natural gas, West East Gas Pipeline

Implement a demonstration of coal to natural gas coupled with green electricity for hydrogen production, supporting wind power projects, and ensuring that the proportion of green electricity consumption from outside the plant is not less than 51%. Build a high concentration carbon dioxide capture and storage demonstration, construct a total scale of 900000 tons/year carbon capture device, and implement it in two parts: the factory area and supporting projects. Overcoming the difficult problem of resource utilization of phenol ammonia wastewater, IMC intermittent high multiplication biological treatment process is adopted to enhance the denitrification and shock load resistance of wastewater.Editor/Gong Ziwei