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In the field of low-carbon energy conversion, the circulating fluidized bed laboratory team at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been conducting research in this area for many years. They entered the gasification niche market, adhering to the technical development principle of \"feasibility in terms of market, technology, and economics.\" They continued to explore the application potential of circulating fluidized bed technology, and on the basis of circulating fluidized bed combustion technology, they further developed circulating fluidized bed gasification and biomass gasification technologies. Recently, a reporter interviewed the research team at the circulating fluidized bed laboratory to gain an in-depth understanding of their path to technological innovation and their future plans. Focusing on the gasification market and leveraging technical advantages to gain an edge: There are numerous approaches to gasification technology. Before the successful development of circulating fluidized bed gasification technology, China had already carried out large-scale introduction, development, and application of fluidized bed gasification technology. Faced with doubts about “whether there is still a need to develop new technologies”, the team gave an affirmative answer. “The complexity of coal quality means that no single gasification technology can ‘serve all purposes’. Circulating fluidized beds have strong adaptability to feed materials and operational flexibility, which makes them well-suited to the requirements of the coal-based industrial gas sector. ”Speaking about the original intention behind the development of circulating fluidized bed gasification technology, Zhu Zhiping, a member of the administrative committee of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and deputy director of the National Key Laboratory for Efficient and Low-Carbon Utilization of Coal, explained to reporters. The R&D team accurately addressed the pain points related to coal type adaptability and long-term stable operation. Apart from highly caking coal, the circulating fluidized bed gasification technology can be effectively applied to bituminous coal, anthracite, lignite, and even the Zhudong coal, which has poor thermal stability and a high content of alkali metals ； In industrial applications, a long-term stable operation period of over 300 days has been achieved, and the gasifier built in Indonesia has set a record for the longest continuous operation time per unit at over 1,500 days. To date, the gasification technology developed by this team has been deployed in over 100 units across the country, with the maximum daily processing capacity of a single unit reaching 2,600 tons; some of these devices have also been exported overseas. These achievements have laid a solid foundation for the team to further expand the areas of technical application. Establishing the “Three Feasibilities” principle to promote the practical application of technology: During the research and development process, the team adhered to the “Three Feasibilities” principle, namely feasibility in terms of principle, feasibility in terms of technology, and feasibility in terms of economics. They conduct field research and carry out studies based on market demands, in order to prevent a disconnect between experimental technologies and industrial needs, thus ensuring that technological innovations can be effectively implemented and disseminated. “The gasification units in modern coal chemical industries rely mainly on pressurized gasification equipment. Such pressurized equipment is costly, and when the scale of operation is small, it becomes impossible to reduce the unit production cost. In China, nearly half of the synthetic ammonia manufacturers are small and medium-sized enterprises; these enterprises want to develop and undergo transformation and upgrading, but they struggle due to the lack of technologies that are economically viable. ”Zhu Zhiping used applications in the ammonia synthesis industry as an example to illustrate the importance of economic viability. “The circulating fluidized bed gasification technology avoids the high costs associated with equipment by using oxygen-enriched gasification at atmospheric pressure, and its scale is suitable for small and medium-sized ammonia synthesis plants.” ” “A company is not a laboratory; no matter how advanced the technology, it cannot survive if it is not profitable. ”Zhu Zhiping said that throughout the R&D process, they always took economic viability as the key criterion to enable technologies to be put into use more quickly. In the development of technologies for producing green methanol from biomass, they also adopted an economic perspective, using the excess energy and residual carbon generated by biomass gasification to power the system; the overall cost in this approach is much lower than that of the route that relies on green electricity. Producing green carbon-containing chemicals from biomass is one of the key approaches to achieving carbon neutrality, but biomass collection, preprocessing, and gasification all present challenges. Biomass is scattered in location, has a low energy density, and variable composition, while gasification technology requires high technical expertise. In the face of these challenges, Zhu Zhiping’s team took advantage of the adaptability of circulating fluidized bed technology to raw materials, and utilized an intelligent control system for automatic adjustment, enabling the gasification furnace to handle biomass materials of different compositions. According to Zhu Zhiping, the atmospheric-pressure biomass gasification technology has been developed to date; the first unit with a capacity of 500 tons per day is currently under testing. In the future, pressure-type circulating fluidized bed gasification technology will also be developed in collaboration with partner companies, in order to further improve the economic viability of this technology. Shape the future energy system and promote the integration of low-carbon technologies. “We don’t want to merely passively adapt to available raw materials; we also need to proactively create raw materials that suit the required technologies.” ”In Zhu Zhiping’s vision, the future of biomass utilization lies not only in the optimization of gasification technology but also in establishing a comprehensive system that covers the entire process from raw material production to energy utilization. The team is working together with experts in the fields of botany and aerospace to conduct research on the space breeding and artificial domestication of energy plants. Zhu Zhiping said, “We plan to plant fast-growing energy crops such as Phragmites australis and Imperata cylindrica on marginal lands like saline-alkali soils and deserts, which can not only improve the soil but also provide a stable source of raw materials.” ”More innovatively, they are forming teams to use techniques such as genetic modification and space breeding to optimize the components of biofuels and develop new varieties of energy crops. “Make the composition of energy plants more suitable for gasification conversion. ”Zhu Zhiping provided further clarification. In terms of the integration of low-carbon technologies, the team proposed a new approach called “green heat drive”. “Currently, Power-to-X primarily uses hydrogen as its platform. In industrial processes, thermal energy is often used as an important means of energy transfer; it would be better to use ‘green heat’ as a carrier to supply heat for reactions such as gasification and pyrolysis. ”Zhu Zhiping explained that heat storage enables long-term, large-scale energy storage, and can effectively address the volatility issues associated with wind and solar power. In addition, the team is also exploring the synergistic use of biomass and fossil fuels. “Biomass has a high oxygen content, while coal has a high hydrogen content; gasifying and pyrolyzing them together allows for complementary advantages. ”Waste plastics are also included in the scope of research; “through circulating fluidized bed technology, ‘white pollution’ can be converted into clean energy, thereby enabling resource recycling.” ”Zhu Zhiping explained the team’s vision to the reporters. Regarding the future of the industry, Zhu Zhiping believes that policy support and market mechanisms are key. “It is necessary to establish a comprehensive certification system for green carbon-containing chemicals, improve the carbon market and carbon tax policies, so as to reflect the value of low-carbon technologies. ”He called on research institutions, enterprises, and governments to work together to advance the transition of biomass energy from technological development to large-scale application.