ChevronTexaco Worldwide Power and
gasification and
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (
Sinopec) announced that ChevronTexaco proprietary
gasification technology has been licensed for use at the
Sinopec naphtha steam reformer plant in Jinling, China.
Revamping the Jinling plant with ChevronTexaco's gasification technology will allow the plant to replace its current naphtha feedstock with lower cost
petroleum coke and
coal feedstock. In addition to these cost savings, retrofitting the plant with gasification technology will generate significant environmental benefits. The gasification process converts the feedstocks to a clean gaseous mixture called
synthesis gas or "
syngas," which is similar to the syngas currently produced by the existing naphtha reformer, but gasification does so with significantly less air
emissions than a naphtha reformer. This syngas is then used to produce
ammonia and
urea for use as fertilizer, plus
hydrogen for use in an adjacent Sinopec refinery.
The project schedule calls for basic design to start this year for a planned start-up and commercial operation in 2005.
When completed, the new gasification facility at Jinling will generate sufficient synthesis gas to produce 300,000 metric tons/year of
ammonia, plus 30,000 metric tons/year of
hydrogen.
Change in the worldwide oil market in the past several years has presented fertilizer
plants which use naphtha or residual oil as feedstock with increasing cost challenge. In order to change this situation, where a fertilizer plant which uses naphtha or residual oil as feedstock operates at a loss, Sinopec will revamp the fertilizer plant by replacing the current naphtha or residual oil with lower cost petroleum coke and coal feedstock. This agreement between Sinopec and ChevronTexaco will be the first such application of ChevronTexaco's coal gasification technology in Sinopec.
Since 1978, ChevronTexaco's proprietary gasification technology has been chosen for sixteen projects in China, each producing syngas for fertilizer or chemical
production, and doing so with both economic and environmental benefits as compared to alternative technologies. Eleven of these licensed gasification plants are currently in operation, with five more in
engineering or under construction.