JAMG builds methanol to gasoline plant

A 100,000 ton per year (tpy) methanol to gasoline (MTG) unit constructed by Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group (JAMG), based in Shanxi, China, will come onstream for commercial operations in May or June after two years of pilot testing. Uhde GmbH, a Germany-based company, has licensed the MTG technology to JAMG and also developed a technology which can produce synthetic natural gas from coal. JAMG started to construct the 100,000 tpy coal to oil (CTO) project in Jincun town, Zezhou county in Shanxi province on May 27, 2006, with a total planned investment of RMB1.698 billion (US$248.76 million). It was part of a pilot plant project started in 2006 and also includes a fluidized bed, hard-coal gasification facility. It is expected to have an annual gasoline capacity of 100,000 tpy. (April 16, 2009)