Air Products has been awarded a long-term on-site contract to supply syngas to Jiutai New Material Co’s mono-ethylene glycol project in Hohhot, China. The gases producer will build, own and operate the air separation, gasification and gas clean- up processing facility in exchange for a fixed monthly fee.

The project, in which Air Products investing $650 million, is expected to begin production in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2021 and will use the gasification technology the US company recently acquired from Shell. This will be the first plant wholly owned by Air Products.

The Chinese facility designed to produce more than 500,000Nm3/hr of syngas will be comprised of five gasifiers and two approximately 100,000nm3/hr air separation units (ASU) with syngas purification and processing, as well as associated infrastructure and utilities. Jiutai will supply the coal feedstock and take all output from the plant.

Building on the previously agreed Lu’An and Yankuang gasifier projects, this will be Air Products’ third supply contract in China to include both coal gasification and syngas. The coal gasification market in China is expected to grow “significantly” over the next 10 years, noted Phil Sproger, vice president, Global Gasification and Asia Large Onsites Business Development at Air Products.

The new project will allow Air Products to further demonstrate its gasification capabilities,  expand its presence in China and position the company for future projects, Sproger said, adding that “owning and operating coal gasifiers and syngas purification units is a logical extension of our global hydrogen and syngas business.”

Established in 2002 the Jiutai Group is a large-scale private company engaged in production of methanol, olefins and other chemical products. It is headquartered in Beijing, with manufacturing bases in Shandong, Inner Mongolia, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.