Russia's Volgograd Methanol Plant Contracts Awarded

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Contracts for a $1.4 billion methanol plant at the former Khimprom chemical site in Volgograd, Russia, have been awarded by project developer GTM One, a subsidiary of AEON Infrastructure.

Danish company Haldor Topsoe, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and GTM One have signed a license agreement for the design, construction, and operation of a 3,000 tonnes-per-day methanol plant based on Topsoe's SynCOR Methanol technology. Topsoe will provide license, basic engineering, catalysts and proprietary hardware for methanol production. In the first stage, Topsoe will provide basic engineering for the process unit, and MHI Engineering will develop the front-end engineering design (FEED) package for the site. At a later stage, Topsoe stated, the parties expect to sign an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. Construction is slated to begin in the second half of 2020 with commissioning due in 2022. Industrial Info is tracking a number of other planned projects to 2025 at the site, including an ethylene and propylene methanol-to-olefins (MTO) unit addition, butanediol and potassium sulphate unit addition, polypropylene unit addition and a polyethylene unit addition.

Topsoe's SynCOR reformer is used in large-scale methanol, ammonia and other processes. The technology allows for a smaller footprint which cuts capital costs, while promising lower operating costs due to reduced steam-to-carbon (S/C) ratios. Low S/C ratios and high reforming temperatures also enable larger single-train capacities and produce syngas that is characterized by very low methane content, low H2/CO ratios and high CO/CO2 ratios. The syngas produced is suited for application in ammonia, methanol and gas-to-liquid (GTL) plants, as well as TIGAS gasoline plants and syngas hubs.

Osipov Alexander, Technical Director, GTM One, said: "All technology customers are looking for well-proven and advanced technologies, high performance and low environmental impacts, high energy efficiency, and low CAPEX (capital expenditures). In most cases, customers face a difficult choice of how to reach a compromise between these interests. We have selected Topsoe as the Topsoe SynCOR Methanol process is the ultimate uncompromising choice. We have found everything we need."

"We are very pleased to offer a solution that not only helps our customers comply with environmental regulations, but also stands out as the most cost-effective in large-scale methanol production," added Peter Vang Christensen, Managing Director of Haldor Topsoe's Moscow office. "We see increasing demand for this technology both in Russia and in other markets."

The plant is a key part of a planned chemical cluster in Volgograd, backed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Russia, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and AEON Infrastructure. GTM One has also signed an off-take contract with Japan's Marubeni Corporation for products produced at the new plant.

Kirill Dmitriev, Chief Executive Officer of the RDIF, said: "Our Japanese partners appreciate the investment attractiveness of the chemical cluster project in Volgograd. Its products will be highly competitive in the global market due to minimal production costs. We look forward to further collaboration with Japanese companies on new projects in Russia".

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