On April 15, 2026, at the Wucaiwan construction site in the Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone of Xinjiang, 15 giant pile foundations had deeply penetrated into the Gobi Desert. Workers from Xinjiang Shanneng Chemical, a subsidiary of Shandong Energy Group, are taking turns pouring the foundation of the gasification workshop. Their goal is only one: by October 2027, this coal to olefin factory covering 378 football fields will officially release plastic particles.

Spending 4 billion to tackle the tough battle within the year

2026 is the most tight year for project construction. According to the schedule of Zhang Hengkai, Deputy Director of the Engineering Management Department, the basic engineering of the gasification, transformation, and purification workshops must be completed within the year, and the propylene tower in the methanol to olefin unit area must also be erected simultaneously. The comprehensive building has entered the internal decoration stage, with a planned investment of 4 billion yuan for the whole year. The rhythm of people resting and machines not stopping runs through the four seasons.

Black gold transforms into plastic material on site

The total investment of the project is 20.858 billion yuan, and the core technology adopts self-developed gasification process. After entering the gasifier, coal undergoes 13 sets of equipment including transformation, purification, methanol synthesis, and olefin separation, ultimately producing 450000 tons of polypropylene and 450000 tons of polyethylene. Deputy Chief Engineer Zhao Zhichao calculated that the annual sales revenue after production is expected to exceed 7 billion yuan, while providing 1500 job opportunities. Keywords: New Energy News Network, Petrochemical

Zhundong Coal Chemical Industry Cluster Accelerates Formation

The 15th Five Year Plan clearly designates Zhundong, Xinjiang as a strategic base for coal to oil and gas production. In addition to Shanneng Chemical, projects such as Dongming Plastics and the National Energy Group Hami Integrated Innovation Base are being promoted simultaneously. The three major bases of Zhundong, Hami, and Yili are gathering over 600 billion yuan of planned under construction production capacity. The coupling of green electricity and green hydrogen has become a prerequisite for the approval of new construction projects, and the industry is shifting from scale expansion to green and efficient operation. As crude oil prices continue to fluctuate at high levels, the cost advantage window of coal chemical industry is being stretched.Editor/Gao Xue