To provide innovative solutions to overcome the challenge of high gas prices, Zhongyuan Dahua’s urea production was the first to switch from using gas to coal”

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“At present, the construction of the company’s project to switch from gas to coal is in its final stages. This winter, syngas produced from coal will be able to partially replace natural gas as a raw material for urea production, thereby reducing the pressure resulting from rising urea costs. ”On November 13, Guo Hongjian, head of the Party Committee Work Department of Henan Zhongyuan Dahuahua Group Co., Ltd., explained. 　　It is understood that among fertilizer manufacturers that rely on natural gas as a raw material, Zhongyuan Dahuahua was the first to carry out structural optimization by using syngas produced from coal in its coal chemical methanol plant to partially replace natural gas as the raw material for urea production. This approach provides an innovative solution for such companies to overcome the challenges posed by high gas prices. 　　The predecessor of Zhongyuan Dahuahua was the Henan Province Zhongyuan Fertilizer Factory, which used natural gas as raw material to produce 300,000 tons of synthetic ammonia and 520,000 tons of urea per year. After its completion and commissioning in 1990, it put an end to the history of Henan Province having no large-scale fertilizer production facilities; it was the first to use the high-pressure ammonia stripping process for urea production, steering China’s fertilizer manufacturing industry in the direction of energy conservation and environmental protection. 　　As a supporting project of the Zhongyuan Oilfield, Zhongyuan Dahua enjoyed a unique advantage from the outset of its construction: it could use natural gas supplied directly through pipelines originating from the Zhongyuan Oilfield. This supply model features short distances and relatively low costs, serving as the \"lifeline\" to ensure its basic production and survival. However, as the Zhongyuan Oilfield has been in operation for an increasing number of years, its natural gas production has gradually declined. Relying solely on this oilfield for gas supply can no longer meet all of Zhongyuan Dahua’s gas demands, particularly those arising from capacity expansion and new projects. 　　In recent years, in order to overcome the limitations of relying on a single gas source and improve supply security, through extensive coordination, the gas sources used by Zhongyuan Dahuahua have gradually become more diversified. Apart from a small amount of gas supplied by the Zhongyuan oil field, natural gas and shale gas from regions such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia are used as supplementary gas sources through the **main pipeline network. 　　Although the raw gas comes from various sources, it is all high-priced natural gas purchased from the market, which indirectly increases the production costs of Zhongyuan Da Hua. In recent years, it has become common for the comprehensive gas price for companies to exceed 3 yuan per cubic meter; as a result, enterprises are forced to bear the heavy burden of high costs. The ongoing downturn in the urea market has further exacerbated the operational difficulties faced by Zhongyuan Dahuahua. 　　“Against this backdrop, Zhongyuan Dahua carried out a project to optimize and upgrade the raw material supply route for fertilizer production. By connecting the gasification gas used in coal chemical processes with the ammonia and urea production facilities in natural gas-based chemical processes, it became possible to switch between different products freely, which improved the company’s economic efficiency and enhanced its product competitiveness as well as its resilience to risks. ”Guo Hongjian, head of the Party Committee Work Department at Zhongyuan Dahuahua, said. 　　Currently, not only Zhongyuan Dahua, but also gas-fed large fertilizer enterprises in the southwestern region, renowned for its abundant natural gas resources, are grappling with the dilemma of “rising gas prices and falling fertilizer prices”. It is reported that, with the exception of a very small number of ammonia-based fertilizer manufacturers such as CNOOC Hainan Large Fertilizer, the capacity utilization rate for ammonia-based urea production across the country has been around 75% in the past two years, which is far lower than the level achieved using coal-based methods. Ammonia-based fertilizer manufacturers urgently need to optimize and reform their raw material sourcing processes.