Siemens Wins Offer of Coal-to-Gas Plants

Recently, Germany’s Siemens Energy received separate large orders to deliver coal-to-gas plants and wind turbines to two customers in China, the company said, without revealing the value of the contracts.

The company said in July, Siemens secured from CPI Xinjiang Energy Co Ltd a contract to deliver eight plants to convert coal to synthetic gas for power generation in Xinjiang in western China.

With a thermal rating of 500 megawatts each, the units are capable of converting 2,000 tons of locally mined sub-bituminous coal a day into synthetic natural gas (SNG) that will reduce the region’s dependence on imported natural gas for power and heat generation.

CPI Xinjiang Energy, a subsidiary of China Power Investment Corporation, one of the country’s five biggest power generators, expects the complex to produce around two billion cubic metres of SNG a year in its first stage of operations in 2014.

Its coal gasifiers are among the world’s biggest and most powerful currently in large-scale industrial applications, with a length of 18 meters, an inside diameter of three meters and weighing more than 200 tons each, Siemens Energy said.

In Xinjiang, the complex will process sub-bituminous coal to generate a synthesis gas which is then cleaned, desulphurised and converted into natural gas in a downstream methanisation stage.

The SNG meets the stringent requirements of the pipeline operators, enabling it to be readily delivered through existing natural gas lines, Siemens Energy said.

“This order is a great success for us on the hotly contested Chinese market. We see it as a sign of confidence in our technology and of high regard for our company. Siemens’ 500 MW coal gasifiers stand out thanks to their robust design and high degree of availability, low servicing requirements and fast start-up and shutdown”. said Roland Fischer, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Fossil Power Generation Division.

“Five Siemens 500-MW gasifiers are already in operation in China, and we appreciate Siemens as a competent and reliable partner for projects of this scale.” Wang Haimin, general manager of CPI Xinjiang Energy’s CPI Yinan SNG Project said.

Wang Baoli, general manager for Siemens’ Fossil Power Generation Division of Energy Sector said, “Siemens works continuously on introducing innovative technologies to China for producing clean energy, especially the ways to make coal environmentally compatible.”

The company announced in June that it had secured an order to supply 21 wind turbines with an output of 2.3 megawatt (MW) and a rotor diameter of 101 meters each for an offshore project in Rudong County in Jiangsu.

The customer is Jiangsu Longyuan Offshore Wind Power Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Ltd which is one of the world’s biggest wind power developers.The scope of supply for the 50MW wind farm, which is expected to start commercial operation later this year, includes a five-year service and maintenance agreement.

Siemens Energy described the project as a breakthrough for the renewable energy strategy as this is its first offshore wind power order from China.

Jens-Peter Saul, CEO of the Siemens Business Unit Wind Power said, “With more than 600 wind turbines with a combined capacity of more than 1,800 MW installed in European waters, Siemens is clearly the market leader in offshore. But we also see good opportunities for offshore wind power in China with its shallow water near the consumption centres on the coast.”

“This order is an important step in entering the rapidly growing Chinese wind power market. With almost 45 GW installed wind capacity and a growth rate of 73% from 2009 to 2010, China is the world’s largest wind power market today”, Mr Saul said.

China will expand its offshore wind power installed capacity to five gigawatts (GW) by 2015 and 30 GW by 2020, According to the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA),.

As part of its internationalization strategy, Siemens has set up offshore offices in the UK, Germany, US and China in 2010. The company opened its first rotor blade manufacturing plant in Shanghai in November 2010 and a nacelle plant, also in Shanghai, in the second quarter of 2011.