Johnson Matthey (JM), global leader in sustainable technologies with expertise in design and licensing of large-scale methanol plants, is pleased to announce another successful license award. 

JM has been selected by China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group as licensor for the third methanol synthesis plant at their coal to olefins complex near Yinchuan in Ningxia Province PRC.  With a planned capacity of 7200 mtpd, the methanol plant will be the largest single train methanol plant in the world once completed.

Under the agreement Johnson Matthey will be the licensor and supplier of associated engineering, technical review, commissioning assistance, catalyst and equipment supply.

The JM methanol plant will take synthesis gas as a feed and utilise JM radial steam raising converters in a patented Series Loop. Together with JM catalysts, to produce stabilised methanol as a product that is used to produce olefins downstream, the plant will provide enhanced energy efficiency along with low OPEX, CAPEX and emissions. 

Upon startup, this will represent JM’s 8^th operating license in China with a plant capacity greater than 5500 mtpd. It is the third JM methanol design licensed by Ningxia Baofeng Energy. 

This award follows the recent successful commissioning of the 6600 mtpd Baofeng methanol synthesis unit in May 2020 and the original 4450 mtpd methanol synthesis unit, which was commissioned in 2014. It demonstrates Baofeng’s recognition of JM’s technical leadership in this key growth market and is a testament to Johnson Matthey’s commitment and dedication to the delivery of large-scale methanol production.

“We are very proud of our ongoing collaboration with Ningxia Baofeng Energy. It is testament to their confidence in JM’s engineering expertise and ability to successfully design and help deliver their large-scale methanol plants”, said John Gordon, Managing Director for Johnson Matthey. “In just over six years it has been exciting to see our strong partnership result in the commissioning of two large scale plants with increasing volumes and a third world-scale plant on the way.  We are very much looking forward to this next ambitious phase of our journey and continuing to raise the bar of world-class project delivery.”

Johnson Matthey is a global leader in science that enables a cleaner and healthier world.

Inspiring science, enhancing life

Ningxia Baofeng Energy was founded in 2005, and is the largest coal to olefin private enterprise to date in China. Baofeng Energy’s stock is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under stock code SH.600989.

The company’s production base is located in the national energy & chemical base – Ningdong Energy & Chemical Base in the northwest China and relies on China’s energy deployment, which is ‘Rich in coal and poor in oil and gas’.

The plants are taking full advantage of local coal resources to build a product chain of ‘coal – coke – methanol – olefins – fine chemicals’ in the Ningdong chemical complex of 14,000 acres.

The complex is now producing 1,200 kt/a of poly-olefins, 4,000 kt/a of methanol, 4,000 kt/a coking and 780 kt/a of fine chemicals, which is the leading enterprise of the most integrated, environmentally friendly coal-based material industry.

Baofeng will be focusing on poly-olefins and incorporating novel energy with the modern coal chemical industry while pioneering the improvement of modern coal chemical.