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Green transformation and upgrading: Xinlianxin helps the fertilizer industry become greener. Author/Source: Xinlianxin Chemical Industry Group. Date: 2021-06-04. Clicks: 17. High-quality development is the major trend in agricultural progress, and fertilizers, as the \"food of foods,\" play an irreplaceable role in ensuring food security and promoting high-quality agricultural development. As the main players in the fertilizer market, it is an important issue for fertilizer companies to achieve high-quality development through green transformation and product innovation. To this end, on the occasion of World Environment Day, a reporter from Environmental Economy Magazine interviewed Liu Xingxu, chairman of Henan Xinlianxin Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xinlianxin). In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on environmental protection. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, even greater focus has been placed on promoting a comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society in order to build a beautiful China. What measures has Xinlianxin taken to achieve energy conservation, emission reduction, and green transformation? Against the backdrop of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, for Xinlianxin, green transformation represents both a challenge and an opportunity. It involves striving to create the greatest social value with the least amount of social resources, changing the mode of development, adjusting the roadmap for development and upgrading in a timely manner, and continuously improving the modernization level and core competitiveness of the industrial chain through sustained technological innovation to \"build, strengthen, supplement, and extend\" this chain. First is to reduce emissions. On the basis of achieving energy conservation and emission reduction, resources should be utilized to the fullest extent by accelerating the industrial upgrading and green transformation of enterprises. We employ industry-leading clean coal slurry production technology to achieve maximum efficiency with minimal resources, raising the coal conversion efficiency from 84% to over 99.7%. Our overall energy consumption ranks first among ammonia synthesis enterprises that use coal as a raw material in the country, and we have been awarded the title of “Energy Efficiency Leader Benchmark Enterprise (Ammonia Synthesis)” for ten consecutive years. Second is strict governance. Over a decade ago, we began to pursue environmental protection with high standards and significant investment. On the one hand, stricter internal corporate control standards have been established, which are 30%~50% stricter than the minimum requirements set forth, in order to minimize pollutant emissions; since the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the total amount of pollutants emitted has decreased by over 60% ； On the other hand, the company spares no expense on environmental protection efforts, allocating 100–200 million yuan each year to upgrade its environmental protection facilities. It also actively participates in the formulation of industry emission standards. In 2018, the Xinxiang facility of Xinlianxin (Henan Xinlianxin Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd.) and the Xinjiang facility (Xinjiang Xinlianxin Energy Chemical Co., Ltd.) were recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as **-level “Green Factories”. Third is turning waste into treasure. Vigorously develop a circular economy to create the greatest value with the least amount of resources. For example, reprocessing and repurposing the waste gases generated in the nitrogen fertilizer production process to produce food-grade carbon dioxide and specialty gases can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 300,000 tons per year. At the same time, combustible gases such as methane are processed into LNG for sale, providing clean energy to society ； All waste residues are subjected to in-depth processing in ash and slag furnaces, and then used as auxiliary materials for cement to produce new types of building materials, thereby achieving full recycling of solid waste. Turning waste into treasure not only minimizes pollutant emissions but also brings considerable economic benefits to Heart to Heart. This year’s **work report states that it is necessary to strictly control soil pollution at its source and strengthen the management of agricultural non-point source pollution. Achieving the green and healthy development of agriculture has once again been elevated to a strategic level. As a fertilizer company, what green and environmental protection-related product upgrades has Xinlianxin carried out? Fertilizers are known as “food for food”. 7% of our arable land feeds 21% of the world’s population, and currently fertilizers account for 50% of the contribution to food production. However, more application of chemical fertilizers is not necessarily better; an excess of such fertilizers can lead to soil acidification and a range of other problems, which can affect the continuous production in agriculture. Ensuring high utilization rates of chemical fertilizers while also guaranteeing the safe production of food is an important challenge that the fertilizer industry must address at present. Green agriculture does not mean avoiding the use of fertilizers; rather, it involves their scientific and rational application. As is well known, improving fertilizer utilization, enhancing the quality of arable land, and protecting the ecological environment are urgent requirements for the green development of agriculture. Over a decade ago, Xinlianxin began to focus on soil and crop nutrition, adopting a differentiated strategy to enhance the research and development of efficient and environmentally friendly fertilizers through technological innovation, and made significant efforts to develop such efficient fertilizers. The water-contact film controlled-release fertilizer developed independently by Xinlianxin can increase the utilization rate of nitrogen fertilizer by nearly 20% compared to ordinary urea. In addition, the urea containing Supercontrol (urease inhibitor) that we developed in collaboration with BASF achieves an ammonia volatilization suppression rate of over 50%. If it is widely adopted in the future and used for wheat and corn cultivation across the country, it could reduce ammonia volatilization emissions by around 700,000 tons per year. This would bring about a significant change in terms of reducing the use of chemical fertilizers as well as ammonia emissions; it would not only minimize fertilizer losses but also reduce agricultural non-point source pollution. According to research conducted as part of the project on \"Controlling agricultural non-point source pollution to reduce ammonia emissions from agriculture,\" after nearly a year of field trials, the use of Xinchuanxin ChaoKongShi fertilizer reduced both the amount of fertilizer applied and ammonia emissions by 28% and 47.8%, respectively, during wheat cultivation; meanwhile, the yield per mu of wheat increased by 9%. At the same time, to address agricultural issues such as soil compaction and poor crop quality, Xinlianxin has developed a range of humic acid products. Humic acid is an organic substance formed by natural geological processes over hundreds of millions of years; it shares the same origin as soil and possesses remarkable properties. Humic acid fertilizers are beneficial for soil restoration, improvement of crop quality, and environmental protection. In 2017, the Heart-to-Heart strategy brought together the leading companies in China’s humic acid industry, and by combining the research resources of domestic and international industry players, it focused on improving crop yields, enhancing efficiency, and raising product quality for different regions and crops. This effort led to increased development of products such as humic acid urea, compound fertilizers, and specialty fertilizers; humic acid urea has since received widespread acclaim in the market. Moreover, Xinlianxin is also actively developing vehicle urea, establishing production and processing facilities for vehicle urea solutions that cover the entire process from urine production to final product filling. At present, Xinlianxin has built China’s first high-purity vehicle urea production line with independent intellectual property rights. From 2018 to 2020, 3.23 million tons of diesel vehicle exhaust treatment fluids were sold, resulting in an indirect reduction of approximately 2.36 million tons of nitrogen oxides, thereby achieving significant environmental benefits. In the future, Xinlianxin will ensure the coordinated development of its three production bases in Xinxiang, Xinjiang, and Jiujiang, making full use of its strengths to make greater contributions to the healthy development of the nitrogen fertilizer industry. Following a centralized model, where urea production bases drive the development of compound fertilizer production bases, those compound fertilizer bases in turn support fertilizer blending centers, and the fertilizer blending centers facilitate the operation of service centers, a systematic agrochemical service system will be established through big data centers and customer service centers. This system is designed to meet the diverse needs of customers, maximize competitive advantages, and enable farmers to achieve the highest possible yields with minimal investment. In recent years, **the relevant authorities have conducted numerous investigations into fertilizer production, and the environmental protection standards for the fertilizer industry have become increasingly stringent. What good practices does Xinlianxin have in terms of environmental protection efforts that could be shared? Over a decade ago, Xinlianxin began to adhere to the principle of \"high standards and high investment\" in order to take proactive steps in environmental protection. It has developed a path of sustainable development with its own unique characteristics in terms of corporate management systems and the application of new technologies, setting the standard that \"all practical and advanced technologies in the industry must be available to Xinlianxin\" when it comes to energy-saving technologies. First, establish an energy management system by implementing a three-level energy management structure at the company, branch plant, and workshop levels, with an emphasis on systematic and process-based energy management. Leveraging the advantages of parks where public resources complement each other, various projects for comprehensive resource utilization are carried out to enable complementary and mutual sharing of resources among enterprises, thereby significantly improving energy efficiency. Second, by establishing large-scale R&D platforms, Xinchuanxin possesses various research facilities such as the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry (Xinchuanxin) Technology Research Center, the Innovation Center for Efficient Use of Nitrogen Fertilizers, corporate technology centers, postdoctoral research stations, and accredited laboratories. It has also developed a three-tiered R&D system comprising basic research, the implementation of research results, and technological advancements in production systems. These technical platforms facilitate technological innovation, support the development and commercialization of new technologies, and provide technical support for energy conservation, emission reduction, and cost reduction. “What plans does Xinlianxin have for green and low-carbon development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period? “During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Xinlianxin will continue to leverage its corporate and environmental advantages to foster comprehensive occupational health initiatives, and maintain steady progress in making energy use greener, resource allocation greener, production processes greener, the product supply chain greener, and emission standards greener. Based on the company’s actual needs, efforts will first be made to increase the use of new technologies for energy savings and carbon reduction; innovative new technologies, processes, and equipment for reducing energy consumption will be introduced to help improve the company’s efficiency in this regard ； Next is to plan the construction of photovoltaic power generation projects in order to increase the proportion of clean energy used ； Third is to adopt green new processes to develop fine chemical products and achieve a multi-output production model.