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Modern coal chemical industry should be developed cautiously as a reserve. Author/Source: Sinochem New Network. Date: June 26, 2019. Clicks: 8. From June 20 to 21, 2019, the 5th China (Yulin) International Symposium on New Coal Chemical Industry was held in Yulin, Shaanxi. Industry experts and enterprise representatives discussed the advancements in coal chemical technology as well as the trends in the development of this industry. It is a consensus among all parties that modern coal chemical industry should develop cautiously. **Xiao Xinjian, an associate researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the development of coal chemical industry is currently constrained by factors such as water resources, economic viability, and the ecological environment; therefore, cautious development and use as a strategic technical reserve should be the policy choices for the present and for some time to come. Among them, coal-based oil and gas should serve as a strategic technical reserve for our country and should not be developed on a large scale. At the same time, the coal chemical industry should rely on technological innovation to develop new materials such as coal-based films and coal-based carbon fibers; this is the important direction for its future development. Tu Jianjun, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, also believes that China’s approach to energy security is undergoing profound changes, which will inevitably affect the development of the coal chemical industry. At present, compared with the ethane processing routes in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, modern coal chemical industries lack advantages in terms of product economics, and they also pose environmental risks; therefore, they should be used as strategic reserves. Liu Yanwei, deputy chief engineer at the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, believes that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the saturation level of China’s market for major petrochemical products will continue to rise. However, companies remain highly enthusiastic about investing, and new production capacity keeps increasing, which will lead to an intensification of the problem of overcapacity as well as competition in the market. Coal chemical industry should become an important supplement to China’s energy and chemical industry framework. Liu Yanwei suggests that Yulin utilize large-scale gasification platforms to improve the availability of key raw materials such as synthetic ammonia, acetic acid, pure benzene, and toluene. By building on its abundant supply of \"three olefins and three benzenes,\" the region can develop coal-based chemicals with high profit potential, such as styrene, TDI, and MDI. It is also possible to use the butenes produced as a by-product of MTO processes to manufacture butadiene, and further develop downstream products like ABS, nylon 12, and isononyl alcohol, thereby promoting the development of high-end coal chemical industries. Huang Ye, deputy chief engineer of Shaanxi Yulin Energy Group Co., Ltd., said that in the next phase, in addition to planning projects for coal-to-oil production, co-production of coal-based aromatic olefins, and PVC production via the ethylene process, Yulin Energy Group will also establish the Yulin Energy Innovation Institute in collaboration with China Science Synthetic Oil and Yulin University. Research will be conducted in areas such as the clean utilization of coal, the production of needle coke from medium- and low-temperature coal tar, and hydrogen fuel cells.