China’s Mengda New Energy starts building coal-to-methanol plant

GUANGZHOU (ICIS)--China’s Mengda New Energy Chemical Base Development plans to build a 600,000 tonne/year coal-to-methanol plant at Ordos in Inner Mongolia by the middle of 2013, a company source said on Thursday.

The company recently started the construction of the plant and it is due for completion in July 2013, the source added.

The company has awarded the engineering, procurement and project management contract for the coal-to-methanol plant to East China Engineering Science and Technology Co (ECEC), according to a statement by ECEC published on Thursday.

The contract is worth yuan (CNY) 906m ($139.8m), the statement added.

Mengda New Energy is also planning to build a 1.2m tonne/yr coal-based dimethyl ether (DME) facility at the same site, the source said.

The construction of the DME facility will be divided into three phases and each phase will have a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year, the source said.

The methanol plant is being built to provide feedstock for the first 400,000 tonne/year DME plant, the source added.

However, further details for the construction of the DME facility were not immediately available.

China National Coal Group, China’s second-biggest coal producer and the parent firm of Mengda New Energy, will provide the coal feedstock to the facility, the source said.

Mengda New Energy, which is based in Ordos, mainly produces coal-based chemicals, the source added.

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