http://j.people.com.cn/n3/2024/1114/c95952-20241707.html

On Nov. 13th, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation began operation of China’s first cold energy exchange in Tianjin Nangang. The annual processing capacity will be more than 2.6 million tons.

The project is China’s first energy coupling between a LNG receiving terminal and a large petrochemical production unit. The project uses LNG as cold energy, the residual heat of the ethylene production unit as thermal energy, and clean energy methanol as an intermediate medium. In the production process, the ethylene production unit needs to use cold energy to cool the equipment to ensure safe production, and LNG needs to use thermal energy to heat the low-temperature LNG to gasify it. While conventional methods involve cooling and heating using energy consuming equipment, this project uses methanol to exchange energy in high and low temperature heat exchangers, forming a cold energy cycle, effectively reducing energy consumption. The coupling can save 13 million cubic meters of natural gas and 3 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity every year.

This energy exchange station recorded China’s largest cold energy utilization rate of 346 tons per hour, and also achieved ultra-long distance cold energy transportation of 22 km. In addition, newly developed heat and cold exchange technology achieved a cold energy conversion efficiency of over 95%.