Celanese signs MOU with Wison for coal-derived syngas for ethanol production in China; transaction value approx. $815M
21 January 2011
Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Wison (China) Holding Co., Ltd., a Chinese synthesis gas supplier, for the production of certain feedstocks used in Celanese’s advanced ethanol production process. (Earlier post.)
Wison plans to invest in a coal gasification unit to produce syngas per Celanese specs, and Celanese plans to invest approximately US$650 million in an Ethanol Complex using the output from Wison as feedstock and Celanese proprietary technology to produce ethanol for industrial use, and potentially for fuel ethanol. This transaction is valued at approximately US$815 million, with $50-80 million in US export content.
The Celanese announcement was made in conjunction with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s State Visit to Washington, DC, this week and a US Department of Energy-sponsored signing ceremony recognizing key US-China energy projects.
Celanese previously announced its intention to construct manufacturing facilities in China that will use its newly-developed and proprietary advanced technology to produce industrial ethanol. Celanese intends to construct one, and possibly two, ethanol complexes in China to serve the fast-growing demand in Asia. The company also announced its intention to explore opportunities in China and other countries for the application of its technology in the global fuel industry.
Celanese’s process technology builds on the company’s acetyl platform and integrates new technologies to produce ethanol using basic hydrocarbon feedstocks.
Celanese has developed proprietary technology to efficiently use outputs from clean coal operations to produce ethanol with significant economic, energy reduction and environmental advantages when compared to other ethanol production technologies. Celanese’s ethanol production has high feedstock-to-ethanol conversion ratios, can use a variety of abundant hydrocarbon resources such as coal and pet coke, and is highly scalable, which allows capacity at each facility to be more than doubled at significantly less than the original investment.
—Jim Alder, Celanese senior vice president, Operations & Technical
Too bad they are not only required to 'share' their technology wiht their counterparts, but to train them as well. It's ok, be content with 3% of the market as your former partner 'comes up' with a similar technology to yours.
Posted by: Rytooling | 21 January 2011 at 07:52 PM
There needs to be more of these ethanol from coal production facilities in the world. Speculators cause the price of petroleum chemical to be too high. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 22 January 2011 at 08:44 PM
Its fun watching greens balancing "evil coal vs food-for-fuel" when thinking about ethanol.
Posted by: Herm | 26 January 2011 at 03:28 AM