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The 2019 Coal and Coal Chemicals Industry Conference was successfully held. Author/Source: XinNeng Tianjin. Date: 2019-06-24. Clicks: 8. On June 20, 2019, the China Coal and Coal Chemicals Industry Conference was held at the Shanghai International Convention Center. 2019 was a crucial year for implementing the 13th Five-Year Plan, as well as a year for consolidating the achievements of supply-side structural reform. The transformation from old to new drivers in the coal industry is accelerating, with the industrial structure upstream and downstream of thermal coal continuing to evolve. The coal chemical industry is experiencing rapid development, and the importance of coal-based clean energy sources, represented by coal, as well as coal chemical products such as urea, in the national economy has become even more evident. This conference was jointly organized by the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the China Coal Marketing Association, and the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, and was hosted by Shanghai Ganglian E-Commerce Co., Ltd., China Coal Market Network, and Shandong Longzhong Information Technology Co., Ltd. Fu Xiangsheng, vice president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech titled \"The Current Status of Modern Coal Chemical Industry and Thoughts on High-Quality Development.\" Fu Xiangsheng structured his speech around three aspects: the current status of the modern coal chemical industry, the challenges faced in its high-quality development, and considerations for such high-quality development. According to statistics from the Coal Chemicals Special Committee, in 2018, the scale of the modern coal chemicals industry as well as the long-term stable operation of its facilities improved steadily. Energy consumption, water consumption, and emissions of various waste materials decreased, while the level of product differentiation improved. The cumulative investment in the four categories of projects that are already in operation – coal-to-oil, coal-to-gas, coal-to-olefins, and coal-to-ethylene glycol – amounts to approximately 526 billion yuan. These projects produce 18.283 million tons of key products, with around 95.6 million tons of coal being converted each year. In terms of specific figures, there was no additional production capacity added for coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas processes in 2018; whereas coal-to-olefins and coal-to-ethylene glycol saw additional production capacities of 600,000 tons per year and 1.74 million tons per year, respectively, in 2018. Last year, the capacity utilization rate for coal-based olefins was relatively the highest, reaching 83.3%. 13 projects have been put into operation. The capacity utilization rate for coal-based ethylene glycol is as low as 55.6%. http://img.yf116.cn/image/img/20190624/954583569819.jpg Fu Xiangsheng said that there are mainly three aspects of challenges facing the high-quality development of the modern coal chemical industry in China at present. The first is the challenge of large-scale industrialized package technologies. Compared with developed countries, China is at the international leading level in both direct and indirect coal-to-oil methods, making it the \"hub of coal chemical industry\". Among them, the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis technology was assessed by experts in April this year as having reached an internationally leading level. Under the leadership of Academician Liu Zhongmin, coal-to-olefins technology has continued to evolve, with the successful development of the third-generation technology. The extended coal-gas-oil co-processing technology, as well as Shaanxi Coal Chemical’s technology for the differentiated utilization of low-rank coal, have all achieved excellent phased results in terms of improvement and demonstration. “There is a lead in individual technologies, but there is still a significant gap in large-scale integrated technologies. ”Fu Xiangsheng pointed out that in the past, to address such issues, we organized many \"end-to-end\" technical research projects. Looking back now, although industrial trials and demonstration projects have been carried out, individual technologies may be advanced, but the integration of these technologies and the availability of key equipment remain bottlenecks. Similar shortcomings exist in modern coal chemical industry as well. The second is to address the challenge of carbon emissions resulting from climate change. Fu Xiangsheng explained that approximately 34 billion tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere worldwide each year. In 2018, total CO2 emissions in the United States decreased by 40 million tons, while China’s total emissions increased by 200 million tons. Due to the coal-dominated energy structure in our country, China’s carbon dioxide emissions have ranked first among all countries in recent years, subjecting it to significant international pressure to reduce emissions. In response to the carbon emission issues associated with the coal chemical industry, China has submitted to the United Nations a plan for addressing climate change, committing to reaching an emission peak by 2030 and reducing emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% compared to 2005 levels. At present, our country is actively piloting and exploring the establishment of a carbon trading market, with enterprises that generate high levels of carbon emissions, such as those in the refining, coal chemical, and fertilizer industries, being the first to be included in this market. The third issue is the challenges posed by the rapid development of integrated refining and petrochemical industries. Our country is now the second-largest petrochemical country and the largest chemical industry country; the Chinese petrochemical industry contributes about 38% to the growth of the global petrochemical industry. In the refined oil market, gasoline consumption has been increasing by around 5% per year over the past two years, while aviation kerosene consumption has risen by more than 10% annually. However, diesel consumption has been declining for two consecutive years, indicating that the refined oil market is also saturated, with a surplus of diesel available. “At present, the chemical industry and coal chemical industry differ only in their raw materials; their product chains are identical, and market competition leads to similar outcomes in both cases. ”Fu Xiangsheng said that the development of coal chemical industry faces challenges from the rapid growth of the petrochemical industry in the context of market competition. 2019 was a crucial turning point as China’s petrochemical industry entered a new phase of transformation and development. At the \"2019 Petrochemical Industry Development Conference\" held in April this year, President Li Shousheng stated in his report that \"China’s petrochemical industry is entering a new phase of high-quality development.\" This assessment was endorsed by the experts and officials from various ministries present; they agreed that 2019 represented an important turning point as the petrochemical industry moved into a new stage of development, marking a year of high-quality growth for this sector. It is also necessary to explore new paths for the high-quality development of the petrochemical industry in the future, focusing on five key areas: technological innovation, the advancement of the industry to higher levels, sustainable development, internationalization of resource allocation, and improved quality and efficiency. It is essential to adhere to a general principle in order to achieve transformation. Fu Xiangsheng said that the \"Plan for the Innovative Development of the Modern Coal Chemical Industry\" states that although significant breakthroughs have been achieved in modern coal chemical technology, it still does not meet the conditions for large-scale industrialization. The level of system integration and pollution control technologies need to be improved, the stability and economic viability of production must be verified, and industry standards and market systems require further development. At present, the modern coal chemical industry as a whole is still in the stage of upgrading and demonstration. At the same time, the principles, key tasks, and safeguard measures for the demonstration of the upgrading of the modern coal chemical industry were further clarified. He believes that technological innovation remains a crucial factor for the high-quality development of the modern coal chemical industry. The industry needs to, on the basis of further increasing efforts in original innovation and technological innovation in key core areas, place emphasis on integrated innovation, industrialization-related technologies, and the level of optimization thereof. Continuously improve new gasification technologies, MTO and DMTO technologies, direct and indirect coal liquefaction technologies, as well as gas purification technologies, large-scale low-pressure methanol synthesis technologies and the upgrading of related key equipment. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the experiences and lessons gained from upgrades and demonstrations, by identifying the strengths and weaknesses, efforts should be focused on overcoming a series of key technologies that hinder the high-quality development of the modern coal chemical industry, as well as technologies to address existing shortcomings, including even disruptive technologies ； Serious consideration should be given to establishing public innovation platforms or technology innovation alliances for the modern coal chemical industry, in order to strengthen the development and growth of innovative talents and teams. In Fu Xiangsheng’s view, green development is a fundamental requirement for the high-quality development of the modern coal chemical industry, while product differentiation and upgrading represent important pathways toward such high-quality development. He said that our country’s resource profile, characterized by a lack of oil and gas and an abundance of coal, determines the development potential and scope for the modern coal chemical industry. The future development of the modern coal chemical industry must be market-oriented. It is necessary to achieve coordinated development with large petrochemical complexes in the eastern regions, while also pursuing a differentiated development path in terms of the product structure compared to integrated refining and chemical production facilities. Modern coal chemical products have different molecular structures from petrochemical products, as well as their own unique performance advantages. By focusing on differentiation and high-end development during the process of high-quality growth, such industries can establish their own market position and competitive advantages. “Cluster development is an important direction for the high-quality development of the modern coal chemical industry. ”Fu Xiangsheng said that it is necessary to focus on fostering a group of world-class enterprises with global competitiveness, to strengthen their core businesses and core competitive advantages, to improve their modern management capabilities and international operation skills as a whole, and to develop a number of petrochemical industry clusters with global competitiveness by building on existing petrochemical parks. Looking at the situation in the first four months of this year, the domestic petrochemical industry had a good start: its operating revenue reached nearly 4 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.8% on a year-on-year basis. Imports increased by 3.3% year-on-year, while both the total production of oil and gas as well as the production and sales volume of key chemicals saw faster growth rates compared to last year. It is worth noting, however, that the total profit amount decreased by 17.6%. Fu Xiangsheng said that overall, although the industry’s capacity utilization rate is higher than in previous years, the profitability remains low. Since last November, the price of ethylene glycol has been falling continuously, and most companies that produce ethylene glycol from coal have ended up in the red. According to statistical data, new projects will continue to come online this year. It is expected that the total production capacity for coal-to-oil conversion will remain unchanged in 2019, with 1 new project coming online for coal-to-gas conversion, 6 new projects for coal-to-olefins conversion, and 8 new projects for coal-to-ethylene glycol conversion. The development of modern coal chemical industry shows no sign of slowing down; both the enthusiasm for petrochemicals in the east and that for coal chemicals in the west remain at a high level. As the methanol \"industrial base\" of the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, Xinneng (Tianjin) Energy Co., Ltd. also took an active part in this conference. Xineng (Tianjin) Energy Co., Ltd. was established in March 2016 with a registered capital of 80 million yuan; it is affiliated with SNEC Ecological Holding Co., Ltd. (stock code 600803SH). Leveraging the parent company XinAo Co., Ltd.’s 5 million tons per year coal processing facility in Wangjiata, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, its 2.4 million tons per year methanol production capacity, its 40,000 tons per year methanol futures delivery warehouse, and its 200,000 tons per year dimethyl ether production plant in Zhangjiagang, the company integrates external resources to focus on the wholesale and retail of coal and coal-based chemical products ； And is committed to the research, development, transfer, consulting, and services in the field of chemical technology ； Business service consulting and other related services.