Synthesis Energy Systems, developers of the U-GAS® fluidized bed gasification technology that allows energy producers to fully utilize even the abundant low rank, low cost coal, reported that the Yima Joint Venture project has begun outputting methanol.
The company thus moves one major step closer towards meaningful financial traction with the China segment of the business this year, as methanol production at the facility is steadily ramped up to full capacity, with completion of the requisite commissioning and start-up steps being taken care of first. This remarkable cutting-edge facility in Henan Province is the result of a $250M investment in the company’s coal-to-methanol technology (or biomass), between SYMX and Yima Coal Industry Group Co. Ltd (25/75 respectively).
The plant will by running through some 2.4k tonnes/day of high-ash Yima coal as peak production levels are met later in the year, outputting some 300k tonnes/year of refined methanol, for which the market in China is growing by leaps and bounds. The demand for non-traditional methanol utilization in olefin and transport fuel production is reaching all time highs and thus there is an eager, burgeoning consumer base for the facility’s output.
CEO of SYMX, Robert Rigdon, hailed this latest sign of progress at the Yima JV as extremely encouraging for the company overall and reminded investors that the end-2012 production target was met on schedule, further proving that the company can take this key technology and execute on full-scale production goals. The project is a significant step forward for SYMX, and Rigdon was keen to point out how the substantial cash flow from the project will steadily increase in concert with production ramp up and eventual sales.
The project itself is phase one of a much larger development known as the Maozhuang Industrial Park, a planned $4B undertaking that should see an additional 900k tonnes of output capacity added over the next two phases alone. Rigdon noted how the Yima JV development was being closely watched by the company’s other customers, as well as by potential partners eager to get into the technology themselves.
The production of methanol at the Yima JV is seen by management as being a major catalyst for jump starting further commercialization of the gasification technology. Moreover, the value of the massive Chinese/global pipeline built up by the company over the past three years during the facility’s construction will now be fully accessed by the new commercialization vectors. There is plenty more work where this came from and the abundance of low-grade coals around the world make the SYMX technology a shoe-in for further developments of this nature.
For more information on Synthesis Energy Systems, visit www.SynthesisEnergy.com
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