Everything is settled: No new coal chemical projects will be launched during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and 80% of the existing projects are facing cancellation!
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Everything is settled: No new coal chemical projects will be launched during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and 80% of the existing projects are facing cancellation! Author/Source: Date: 2017-01-24 Clicks: 52 The introduction of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”) has attracted significant attention among those working in the energy sector; it also resolves the issues that have long persisted in the coal chemical industry. The author believes that the aspects related to the development of coal chemical industry in the \"plan\" can be summarized into four points: controlling production capacity, upgrading demonstration projects, developing technologies, and establishing key facilities. Controlling production capacity: The plan states that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the production capacity for coal-to-oil and coal-to-natural gas is expected to reach around 13 million tons and 17 billion cubic meters, respectively. According to Greenpeace’s statistics, as of January 2017, the production capacity of coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas projects already in operation in China was 8.18 million tons and 5.105 billion cubic meters respectively. Including those projects that are under construction or have received approval and could start operations at any time, the total production capacity of coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas projects in areas meeting the requirements set for the 13th Five-Year Plan reached 28.68 million tons and 78.83 billion cubic meters, far exceeding the capacity targets outlined in that plan. http://img.yf116.cn/image/img/20170124/95593570949.jpg In order to reduce production capacity during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, only 24% and 16% of the production capacity of existing coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas projects that met the requirements of this plan was retained. It is evident that the room for development in coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas technologies will be further squeezed. This also shows that the industry is bound to return to upgraded demonstration projects and pursue its own technological development.
It should be properly controlled; otherwise, a large amount of social resources will be wasted
Currently, the coal chemical industry does not suffer from overcapacity; rather, the issues related to coal’s consumption of water resources and its impact on environmental protection, as well as the problems of water and air pollution resulting from coal gasification, have not been properly addressed. If these challenges can be overcome, the coal chemical industry still has a bright future – there is no issue of overcapacity.
Pollution is not a problem unique to coal-based chemical industries; all chemical companies inevitably have to deal with this challenge. But **the introduction of restrictive policies to control coal chemical production capacity is not due to pollution issues, but rather to correcting its own policy mistakes and regulatory failures**. For example, it’s just right to have 2 sheep on a piece of grassland – this ensures that the sheep are well-fed without causing the grassland to become desertified. The two sheep can be kept there indefinitely. But if you decide to keep 3 sheep, then none of them will get enough food, and over time the grassland will gradually turn into desert land, to the point where even 2 sheep can no longer be sustained there. **That’s exactly what we used to do: whenever there was a good project that seemed profitable, we would rush to get involved in it, without considering whether the local raw material resources were sufficient to meet the demand, nor whether an increase in production capacity would lead to fierce competition. We also didn’t consider the potential damage that an increase in the number of enterprises could cause to the local natural ecosystem.** As a result, some projects that seemed promising failed to avoid overcapacity within a couple of years due to **policy mistakes and regulatory failures, leading to a sharp drop in product prices and losses for the companies involved. I believe that **now that this issue has been recognized, companies are starting to learn from abroad; they no longer emphasize their production capacity or pursue horizontal expansion, but instead focus on developing in depth and seeking efficiency through high-tech solutions. In fact, as long as you do things well, even a single screw can become famous worldwide. Therefore, it seems that **future policy directions will gradually shift toward high technology, and I think this is the right path to take.
Return a clean face to the Earth!
When everyone rushes to gather together, it leads to such results – to see who gets eliminated.
It’s still the issue of pollution; there are no chemical companies that do not cause pollution
It is difficult to implement in a market economy environment.