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Research and development of coal-based oxidized chemicals are in full swing. Author/Source: China Chemical Industry News. Date: 01-02-2019. Clicks: 45. Coal-based oxidized compounds, with their wide range of products, diverse downstream applications, and various production technologies, are seen as key areas for the advanced and differentiated development of modern coal chemical industry, and great expectations are placed on them. In recent years, our country has achieved a series of innovations and breakthroughs in the development of new fields related to coal-based oxidized chemicals, with rapid progress and strong momentum in technology development. At the 2018 Coal-Based Oxidized Chemicals Development Forum held in Sanmenxia City on December 27, 2018, Zhou Zhuye, vice president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, introduced the technical progress and R&D trends in coal-based oxidized chemicals. Coal-based ethylene glycol: Technology is becoming increasingly mature. Ethylene glycol is a major basic chemical raw material whose market volume is second only to that of ethylene and propylene, and there is a significant shortage in the domestic market. Since the commissioning of the first coal-based ethylene glycol project, the Tongliao Jinmei project, in 2009, production capacity and output have been increasing steadily; by 2017, coal-based ethylene glycol production accounted for 31.87% of the total national ethylene glycol production capacity. As production capacity grows rapidly, the technology for producing ethylene glycol from coal is also becoming more mature. More than 10 domestic organizations have engaged in research and development on this technology, utilizing coal and syngas to produce ethylene glycol, and a number of scientific achievements have been made in this area. Among them, the technology developers who possess the core technologies for industrialization include the Fujian Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sinopec, Shanghai Pujing Chemical, Hubei Huashuo, and other entities. The production facilities of enterprises such as Inner Mongolia Tongliao Jinmei, Henan Anyang Yongjin, Yangmei Shouyang, and Xinhang Energy have achieved safe, stable, long-term operation at full capacity. Currently, the technology for producing ethylene glycol from coal is moving toward larger-scale facilities, with an emphasis on lower consumption, reduced emissions, and higher efficiency. At the same time, the quality of this product is continuously improving, which further enhances downstream users’ acceptance of it. Coal-based ethylene glycol is now being used on a large scale in the polyester fiber industry. Ethanol from coal: Development of various routes The production cost of ethanol derived from coal is significantly lower than that of ethanol produced from biological sources, giving it strong competitiveness and broad prospects for development. Driven by the favorable policies for promoting ethanol gasoline, coal-based ethanol has become the most attractive direction for technological development. Currently, there are mainly 3 types of coal-to-ethanol process routes that are being utilized for industrial demonstration and testing in China. The integrated process technology for producing ethanol from syngas, jointly developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Yanchang Petroleum Group, uses coal-based syngas as raw material and converts it into ethanol through methanol and dimethyl ether carbonylation followed by hydrogenation. Utilizing this technology, Yanchang Petroleum has built the world’s first industrial demonstration plant for producing ethanol from syngas with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons. The technology for producing ethanol from acetic acid, developed in collaboration between the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and Jiangsu Supor Group, integrates efficient acetic acid hydrogenation technology with low-energy molecular sieve membrane dehydration technology. In April 2016, an industrial demonstration unit for producing ethanol from acetic acid with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons was built at Jiangsu Supor Group and started operating successfully on its first attempt. Jupeng Biology and Shanxi Lu’an Group have collaborated to use Jupeng Biology’s patented fermentation technology to convert industrial waste gas into fuel ethanol in a highly efficient, selective, and rapid manner. A demonstration project for producing ethanol through biological fermentation of syngas with an annual capacity of 20,000 tons is set to be completed and put into operation this year. MMA butyl acetate: Driving product differentiation. Methyl methacrylate (MMA) is an essential monomer for producing critical strategic materials such as aerospace glass and optical fibers; currently, over 50% of the MMA used in China has to be imported. The gap is enormous, severely restricting the development of related industries. The Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Henan Energy and Chemical Group, has developed a technology for producing MMA from ethylene and syngas. An industrial pilot plant with a capacity of thousands of tons has been built, successfully breaking the foreign monopoly on the technology for manufacturing MMA using ethylene and syngas as raw materials. The technology for the catalytic one-step conversion of butyraldehyde into butyl butyrate, developed in collaboration between Tianjin Bohua Yongli Chemical Co., Ltd. and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, features a simple reaction pathway, low raw material costs and energy consumption, no formation of by-products such as water, and high atomic economy. It holds promise as a replacement for the traditional production methods of butyl butyrate, which are energy-intensive and generate significant pollution. To date, a pilot plant with an annual capacity of 100 tons has been built. The development of these new technologies will provide more technical options for the development of downstream products in modern coal chemical industry. Resource utilization of CO2: Producing high-value-added products Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas, but it is also an inexpensive and abundant carbon-based resource; therefore, it is important to utilize it to produce high-value-added chemicals. The Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Jiangsu Aoke Chemical Co., Ltd., has developed a complete set of technologies for the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into dimethyl carbonate/ethylene glycol using solid-supported ionic liquids. This technology possesses independent intellectual property rights; an industrial plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons has been built and is operating stably. The dimethyl carbonate produced using this process technology meets battery-grade standards, while the quality of ethylene glycol exceeds **the standard; it represents a successful example of the application of green engineering and green chemistry. The Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanxi Lu’an Mining (Group) Co., Ltd., and the Dutch oil company Shell have collaborated to use carbon dioxide and methane as carbon sources, converting them into syngas under specific conditions; this syngas can then be used to produce chemicals and liquid fuels with high added value. Industrial pilot tests have already been completed, with a daily conversion capacity of around 60 tons of carbon dioxide. The team led by Academician Li Can from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a bimetallic solid-solution oxide catalyst that enables the high-selective and highly stable hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce methanol. The catalyst remained active after 500 hours of continuous operation, exhibited excellent resistance to sintering and a certain degree of resistance to sulfur, indicating good prospects for industrial application. The development of these new technologies for the recycling of carbon dioxide is of great significance for alleviating the energy crisis and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Regarding the further technical research and development of coal-based oxidized chemicals, Zhou Zhuye put forward two suggestions: on the one hand, technological advancements should be pursued to develop more efficient synthesis methods; on the other hand, cooperation among industry, academia, and research institutions should be established to carry out research on technologies, equipment, and catalysts, thereby enabling the development of high-end and differentiated products. Specifically for coal-based ethylene glycol, in addition to strengthening research on its applications in high-end polyester and silk-like materials, it is also necessary to further develop fine chemical products such as glycolic acid, polyglycolic acid, glyoxalic acid, ethylene glycol ethers, ethylenediamine/ethanolamine, and indole, in order to provide new ideas for the differentiated development of downstream products. As for coal-based ethanol, it is essential to further develop production methods for bulk chemicals and fine chemical products such as ethylene, ethylbenzene, ethers, alcohols, esters, and other types of alcohols.