A new family of renewable energy sources has emerged: coal chemical industry by-products are now used to produce 98-octane high-performance gasoline

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A new family of renewable energy sources has emerged: by-products from coal chemical processing have been used to produce 98-octane high-quality gasoline. Author/Source: Date: 2017-09-13; Clicks: 33. With the support of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., utilizing its own patented technologies for novel catalysts and advanced processing methods, collaborated with Shenhua Ningmei Group to build an industrial facility in the Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industry Base in Ningxia capable of producing 200,000 tons per year of mixed aromatization products. This facility was successfully put into operation recently, producing the cleanest 98-octane gasoline available in China. This development fills the gap in the domestic and international coal chemical industry chain regarding gasoline products, while also opening up a new pathway for producing highly clean gasoline using coal as the raw material. Reputable experts claim that the advent of this technology will **reduce reliance on oil for domestic gasoline production, and it also brings new momentum to the sustainable development of the coal-to-oil chemical industry. 　　Our country is rich in coal but short of oil. In recent years, with the rapid economic development, imports of crude oil have been rising year by year. Over the 10-year period from 1993 to 2003, the annual increase rate was over 15%. Due to rising oil prices, in 2004 China spent 55 billion yuan more on importing crude oil than in the previous year. Taking 2016 as an example: that year, China’s total oil consumption was 556 million tons, of which 381 million tons were imported, resulting in a foreign dependence rate of 65%. In other words, nearly two-thirds of China’s oil needs were met through imports. The shortage of oil resources has always been a major challenge hindering the economic development of our country. As the \"Project No. 1\" among the key construction projects during the 12th Five-Year Plan period – namely the demonstration project for deep coal processing – the 4 million-ton coal-to-oil project of Shenhua Ningxia Coal Group, with a total investment of 55 billion yuan, holds great strategic significance for addressing China’s shortage of oil and gas resources, balancing the energy structure, advancing medium- to long-term energy development strategies, and ensuring energy security as well as the development of the national economy. On December 28, 2016, the successful one-time trial operation of the world’s largest coal-to-oil project marked that China’s coal-to-oil technology had reached an internationally leading level. 　　According to Liu Xiquan, chairman of Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Shenhua Ningmei Group produces a total of 4.05 million tons of synthetic oil products per year, of which 2.73 million tons are blended diesel, 980,000 tons are naphtha, and 330,000 tons are liquefied petroleum gas. For many years, naphtha has been sold as a by-product at a price about 40% lower than that of gasoline, resulting in relatively low added value. Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. saw this business opportunity and utilized its own **invention patent – the technology titled “Catalyst for Increasing the Octane Number of Fuel Gasoline while Reducing Olefin Content and Its Applications.”** Using naphtha and tetraolefins as raw materials, and relying on the existing equipment at Shenhua Ningmei Group’s dimethyl ether production facility, the company invested only 150 million RMB to build a plant capable of producing 200,000 tons per year of high-purity gasoline with octane numbers of 92, 95, and 98. This gasoline can be synthesized directly. The quality standards of this gasoline not only meet those of National V gasoline standards; moreover, it is free of sulfur, nitrogen, and heavy metals, making it the cleanest and highest-quality gasoline available in China at present. Moreover, there is no discharge of wastewater or exhaust gases during the production process, which not only ensures clean products but also a clean production process; the energy consumption per unit of product is only one-third of that in traditional gasoline production. With just this, annual sales can exceed 1.5 billion yuan. 　　According to Ding Yong, general manager of Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and the inventor of this patent, as early as the beginning of the last century, countries such as Japan, Germany, the United States, and South Africa began working on coal-to-oil conversion, but they failed to find a proper solution for the true transformation of the by-product of this process, namely naphtha. Our country resumed research and development on coal-to-oil technology in the 1980s, and is now well ahead of the international community in this field. To date, no coal-to-oil projects with an annual production capacity of over 100 tons exist abroad. In China, in addition to Shenhua Ningmei Group’s 4 million-ton coal-to-oil project, other ongoing coal-to-oil projects include ones with capacities of 1.2 million tons per year in Hangjin Banner, Inner Mongolia; 1 million tons per year in Lu’an, Shanxi; 2 million tons per year in Dalu, Inner Mongolia; 2 million tons per year in Bijie, Guizhou; 1 million tons per year in Yili, Xinjiang; 2 million tons per year in Ganquanbao, Xinjiang; and 500,000 tons per year in Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia. The total annual production capacity of these projects amounts to 13.5 million tons of oil products. With this, as much as 5 million tons of naphtha is produced each year. If the proprietary innovative catalyst technology owned exclusively by our company, Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., is used to convert all of this naphtha into 98-octane high-quality gasoline, the annual sales revenue could reach over 37.5 billion yuan. 　　If all cars across the country could use this high-quality gasoline, it would undoubtedly make a significant contribution to environmental protection and to the reduction of smog; seeing blue skies and white clouds again would then no longer be a dream. **Data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection show that vehicle exhaust accounts for over 20% of PM2.5 levels; this is mainly due to the excessive levels of nitrogen oxides in current gasoline, as well as the high levels of sulfur, which are highly harmful to human health. Therefore, controlling automobile exhaust emissions is an urgent task to reduce PM2.5 levels. The high-purity Highxin 98 gasoline produced by Ningxia Yongquan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. solves this problem, both at the domestic and international levels, making it a true \"solution for combating smog\". http://www.nmtech.com.cn/sys/sec_zxwz.jpg