China has set up a massive coal chemical project in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, marking another step in the diversified and clean use of its abundant coal reserves.

The 59 billion yuan ($9.1 billion) plant, set up by Zhongtian Synergetic Energy Co Ltd, will be one of the largest coal-based chemical companies and enables it to compete with other petroleum and natural gas-based chemical firms.

By converting coal to methanol and the methanol to olefin, the company can produce 3.6 million tonnes of methanol and 1.37 million tonnes of plastic products such as polypropylene and polyethylene each year, which is the largest capacity among all coal-based chemical companies in China.

It also plans to expand its annual coal-to-olefin capacity by 1.8 million tonnes and coal-to-methanol capacity by 1.8 million tonnes by 2020.

The company has invested 862 million yuan for sewage treatment to realize almost zero emissions of pollutants in its waste water, while the exhaust emissions are well under the national standard.

Manufacturing chemicals from coal is essential for China's long-term energy security, said Wu Lixin, deputy director of the strategic planning research department at the China Coal Research Institute.

Chinese coal enterprises have made large investments in turning coal into liquid fuel and chemicals through liquefaction and gasification, Wu said.

Instead of simply burning the dirty fuel, these technologies allow for cleaner and more efficient use of coal, Wu added.

(Writing by Jessie Jia  Editing by Harry Huo)
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