On January 29, the methanation catalyst jointly developed by CNOOC Gas & Power Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “gas & Power Group”) and Southwest Chemical Research and Design Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Southwest Institute”) was applied for the first time in Qinghua 1.5 billion m3 / a coal to natural gas project, marking a major breakthrough in China’s large-scale coal to natural gas methanation technology, Contribute hard core technology to China’s clean coal utilization and low-carbon transformation.
Coal to natural gas is an important part of new coal chemical industry. It is one of the important directions for China’s clean utilization of coal and ensuring people’s livelihood. It is related to national energy security and people’s livelihood development. Methanation is one of the key core technologies to turn coal into clean natural gas, in which methanation catalyst plays a vital role. At present, the four coal to natural gas projects in operation in China adopt foreign technologies and catalysts, which are expensive to introduce and difficult to guarantee supply.
The gas power group started the research on the process technology and catalyst of coal to natural gas in 2010 and carried out joint research and development with Southwest Institute in 2013. In that year, it completed the model test run of 350 standard cubic meters / hour methanation and the preparation of kilogram and ton of catalyst, In 2014, the world’s largest pilot run of the whole process of coal to natural gas methanation of 2000 standard cubic meters / hour and the preparation of 1.3 billion cubic meters / year process package were completed. This achievement was identified as “international advanced level” by Petrochina Company Limited(601857) and the Chemical Industry Federation.
“Since then, we have continuously improved and upgraded the complete set of technology for another eight years, applied for 27 invention patents and obtained 19 authorizations.” Hou Jianguo, the project leader of gas power group, introduced that the complete set of technology, including process package, catalyst and reactor, has successfully broken the monopoly of foreign technology. It is the first large-scale coal to natural gas methanation technology to realize engineering application in China, filling the technical gap in this field in China.
In 2021, the independent methanation technology completed the industrial side line test at the coal to gas field in Yili, Qinghua, competing with foreign technologies. The results show that the overall performance of independent methanation catalyst is at the same level as that of foreign advanced catalysts. It is superior to foreign products in one-way methanation conversion efficiency, raw material adaptability and operation flexibility. It has the advantages of energy saving, high efficiency and strong adaptability.
Taking this technology application as an opportunity, gas power group will strengthen market promotion, expand the innovation of methanation technology in the fields of coal chemical industry and renewable energy integration, carbon dioxide chemical utilization and emission reduction, and help China achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutralization.
