Jiutai Energy (Zhungeer) Co. Ltd, part of the Jiutai Energy Group (Beijing / China; www.chinajiutai.com), has licensed the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology of UOP (Des Plaines, Illinois / USA; www.uop.com), a subsidiary of Honeywell (Morris Township, New Jersey / USA; www.honeywell.com). The process will be used to convert methanol produced from gasified coal into 600,000 t/y of ethylene and propylene. UOP also will provide basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, technical services and training for the project scheduled to start up in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, in 2014.

China is believed to account for nearly half the world's coal production, which makes gasification a viable route to petrochemicals. Licensing the MTO process, claimed to provide high yields with minimal byproducts, will allow Jiutai to maximise yields of high-value petrochemicals, reduce operating costs and expand its presence in China's growing ethylene and propylene markets, said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell's UOP Process Technology & Equipment business unit. The process is also claimed to offer output flexibility and thus permit producers to adapt plant designs to market demands

In another Ordos City project, Jiutai recently licensed the “Unipol” PP process of Dow Chemical unit Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology for its new 350,000 t/y methanol-to-olefin propylene plant due for start-up at the site in 2015 – see Plasteurope.com of 17.09.2012.