Team for Research on Methanol-to-Olefins Technology

Vol.26 No.22012 S&T Progresswent into formal commercial operationlater in January 2011.The industrialization of thetechnologies for coal-based olefinssynthesis remained in the spotlightand was ranked among the top tenS&T progress events of China in2010. It takes a leading position in theinternational chemical industry in termsof the industrialization pace, as wellas the scale and performance of thetechnology.The successful development andindustrialization of DMTO/DMTO-II have far-reaching implicationsfor boosting the methanol-to olefinsindustry as well as the implementationof the "replacing oil with coal" strategy.Profs. LIU Zhongmin, XU Leiand LO Zhihui at DICP received thehonor as prominent contributors tothe research. Among them, Prof. LIUZhongmin, leader of overall DMTOdevelopment, proposed the overalltechnological approach and designedthe experiments. He also saw throughthe implementation of the research,pilot experiments and industrialization.Another leader of the team, Prof.XU Lei contributed mainly to thedevelopment of catalysts, and Prof. L0The commercial unit at Shenhua Group in Baotou City based on the DMTOZhihui to the industrial experimentstechnology developed by the DICP team led by Prof. LIU. To make olefins, akind of basic materials for chemical industry, from coal rather than oill has been aand commercial promotion of DMTO.dream and also a big challenge for scientists all over the world. The team's workOther 17 researchers were also awardedhas provided a solution to the long-standing hard-nut problem of transformingmethanol into olefins, a vital step in turning coal or natural gas to olefins.as main participants in the DMTOresearch and development.2|The demonstration unit for DMTO-I1中国煤化工ogy.MYHCNMHGBulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 161