Ningxia Coal Industry Co., Ltd., a unit of China Energy Investment Corp (CHN Energy), has broken foreign monopolies on several projects, strengthening the coal chemical industry chain in the Ningdong base.

In its 100,000-tonne per annum EVA project, Ningxia Coal successfully localized and deployed a high-pressure pipeline system for autoclave EVA technology, replacing imported products. The move has shortened construction timelines and cut equipment procurement costs, the company said.

The 3.6-million-tonne per annum (Mtpa) methanol-to-olefins (MTO) unit is the world's largest single-train MTO facility. Ningxia Coal achieved on-site "integrated manufacturing" of the MTO reactor and regenerator, the largest of their kind in China, through technological upgrades, as road transport was not feasible.

In a brine concentration and resource utilization project, Ningxia Coal completed the hoisting of a 42-meter-long, 19.18-tonne cross-railway construction truss with zero safety incidents, errors or delays, clearing a key bottleneck.

Separately, the first industrial-scale unit to convert tail gas from a 4 Mtpa coal-to-liquids plant into LNG is on track for mechanical completion by year-end, filling a gap in large-scale coal-to-liquids byproduct utilization.

Ningxia Coal's coal chemical engineering division said projects are cutting costs through localization, design optimization and process upgrades.

Ningxia Coal, a joint venture between CHN Energy and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, operates coal mining, coal-to-chemicals, new energy and logistics. Its coal segment runs 14 mines producing anthracite, coking coal and thermal coal, with an approved capacity of 82.4 Mtpa and production capacity of 60 Mtpa. Its coal chemical unit operates 10 plants with a combined capacity of 12 Mtpa, producing oil products, polyolefins and methanol. The new energy unit has 12 solar projects totaling 135 MW. Its logistics arm, based on the Ningdong railway, has built an integrated road-rail transport network.