China first heat and cold energy exchange station goes into operation

China first heat-cold energy exchange station was officially put into use in Tianjin Nangang, with an annual processing capacity of over 2.6 million tons, which can save 13 million cubic meters of natural gas and 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, marking a major breakthrough in Sinopec's comprehensive utilization of cold energy, which has a demonstrative significance for further promoting my country's green and low-carbon energy transformation.

On November 13, it was learned from China Petrochemical Corporation that Sinopec's first heat-cold energy exchange station was officially put into use in Tianjin Nangang, with an annual processing capacity of over 2.6 million tons, which can save 13 million cubic meters of natural gas and 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, marking a major breakthrough in Sinopec's comprehensive utilization of cold energy, which has a demonstrative significance for further promoting my country's green and low-carbon energy transformation.

According to relevant Sinopec officials, the project uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) as cold energy, surplus heat from ethylene production units as heat energy, and clean energy methanol as an intermediate medium, realizing energy coupling between LNG receiving stations and large petrochemical product production units. During the production process, the ethylene unit needs cold energy to cool the equipment to ensure safe production, and LNG needs heat energy to heat the low-temperature liquid natural gas to gas. Traditional methods use energy-consuming equipment for cooling and heating, while this project uses methanol to exchange energy in high and low temperature heat exchangers to form a cold and hot energy cycle, effectively reducing energy consumption and achieving green production.

In addition, the project breaks through the dual barriers of LNG cold energy utilization in scale and distance. The cold energy utilization of the exchange station can reach 346 tons/hour, and it also realizes long-distance cold energy transmission of up to 22 kilometers, rewriting the history of my country's cold energy being only used in a small range. At the same time, with the help of innovative cold and heat exchange technology, the cold energy conversion efficiency exceeds 95%, ranking among the top domestic cold energy utilization rates, further verifying the huge potential of LNG cold energy utilization.

A relevant person in charge of Sinopec said that in the next step, Sinopec will continue to explore comprehensive utilization of cold energy, light hydrocarbon separation, hydrogen liquefaction technology, etc., to accelerate the green and low-carbon development of the petrochemical industry.