There is about 70%-90% CO contained in the calcium carbide furnace exhaust, a resource recognized as extremely valuable in the industry. However, its recycling is difficult due to its complex composition and difficulty in purification. At present, there are two main ways to utilize the tail gas: one is to utilize its heat energy, and the other is to use it as the raw material gas for C1 chemical products after purification.

At the beginning of 2013, the 50,000 tons/year MEG synthesis project of Xinjiang Tianye Co.,Ltd from the tail gas of the calcium carbide furnace was formally put into production, and the PSA-CO plant and the PSA-H2 purification plant from the calcium carbide furnace exhaust, which were designed and constructed by PKU Pioneer, were successfully started up in one run, and the flow of the product CO was 6,000Nm³/h (99%) and that of H2 was 16,000Nm³/h (99.9%). This is an innovative result of China calcium carbide industry's efforts to comprehensively utilize tail gas energy and develop a circular economy. It marks the first time that China's key technology, CO separation and purification for the comprehensive utilization of calcium carbide furnace tail gas, has been successfully implemented in large-scale industrial applications, opening up a new way for low-carbon production and high-efficiency profit generation for the calcium carbide industry.

Comprehensive utilization of calcium carbide furnace tail gas is the development trend of calcium carbide industry. Xinjiang Tianye quickly reached cooperation with PKU Pioneer again after the Phase I project operated stably. In March 2015, its Phase II ethylene glycol project with an annual output of 200,000 tons was formally put into operation, which attracted much attention from the calcium carbide and coal chemical industries as the largest project in China to synthesize MEG by utilizing the resources from industrial tail gases. Following the commissioning of the Phase I project, Pioneer again contributed to the project by designing and constructing the core equipment for the separation and purification of CO and H₂. Taking the calcium carbide furnace tail gas and methanol purge gas as raw materials, the purified CO and H₂ were used in the downstream production of MEG and 1,4-Butanediol, thus solving the long-standing difficulties in comprehensive utilization of calcium carbide furnace tail gas, and creating significant economic benefits for the enterprise.