China approves Wison Engineering’s technology for methanol-to-olefins

The development and industrial applications of methanol-to-olefins (MTO) separation technology undertaken by Wison Engineering have recently passed scientific and technological appraisal conducted by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA), the company said on Wednesday.

The appraisal results show that Wison Engineering’s proprietary MTO separation technology has reached advanced international standards and is highly competitive in the market.

 

The experts concluded that Wison Engineering’s MTO separation technology is innovative and advanced in comparison to similar technologies both in China and overseas, as it is the first to apply pre-cutting and oil absorption technology to the separation of MTO reaction byproducts, according to Wison officials.

"MTO technology involves a reaction and separation process," the CPCIA expert said. "Wison Engineering’s self-developed MTO separation technology plays an important role in enhancing the whole process of MTO. Moreover, it helps break the technological monopoly enjoyed by foreign enterprises in this area, thereby reducing the dependence on foreign technology and promoting the development of domestic MTO industry, and is therefore of great significance in driving China’s economic development."

Meanwhile, it also adopts downward film heat exchanger for transferring heat and materials simultaneously during the oil absorption process. It can be widely used in MTO plants and has good potential for other applications.

 

"Wison Engineering’s MTO separation technology features a number of advantages: a simple process, low investment costs in terms of equipment, low energy consumption and higher yields of ethylene," said Fan Liming, GM and professor-level Engineer at Shaanxi Pucheng Clean Energy Co. "These advantages are clearly manifested at the 680,000 tpy DMTO-II project of Pucheng Clean Energy employing this technology.” 

 

The appraisal shows that when compared to imported technologies currently in use, Wison Engineering’s MTO separation technology increases the ethylene yield by 1%. 

With low capital investment requirements and featuring low energy consumption and high product yields, this technology has been or will be applied at eight coal-to-olefins plants of different sizes in China. Two of them have commenced production and produce polymer-grade ethylene and propylene, with low energy consumption levels and product yields that exceed the design specifications. 

Meanwhile, the first 300,000 tpy MTO plant utilizing the technology was launched for production in Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park nearly two years ago. It is running smoothly, company officials said, with a product yield exceeding 99.7% and energy consumption per unit of product separated of only 592 kcal.