Yulin has set targets for the environmental upgrading of semi-coke, with full completion to be achieved by the end of 2020

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Yulin Sets Targets for Environmental Upgrades of Lignite Production; Full Completion by the End of 2020 Author/Source: Sinochem News Network Date: 2019-07-10 Clicks: 2 Yulin City in Shaanxi Province, which accounts for about 60% of China’s total lignite production capacity, has set a goal to ensure that all lignite-related enterprises complete their environmental upgrades by the end of 2020. By the end of 2021, 1–2 large-scale projects for the efficient and clean utilization of coal on a diversified basis are to be established, with coal pyrolysis and related technologies reaching a leading level in China, thus forming a distinctive coal chemical industry framework. This is what the reporter learned from the meeting on promoting the upgrading and transformation of the semi-coke industry held in Yulin City on July 4th. 　　Domestic semi-coke enterprises are mainly concentrated in Yulin, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shanxi and other regions. Yulin has a total semi-coke production capacity of 60.27 million tons per year, accounting for about 60% of the national total capacity. There are 126 semi-coke and related enterprises in this area, and downstream industrial clusters such as calcium carbide, ferroalloys, synthetic ammonia, clean fuel oil, and metallic magnesium have already been developed. In 2018, Yulin’s production of semi-coke was 31.51 million tons, accounting for about 50% of the country’s total output. 　　According to Chai Xiaoping, director of the Yulin Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau, the production of semi-coke currently relies mostly on lump coal as raw material. Yulin alone requires nearly 100 million tons of lump coal with a particle size of 30–80 mm per year, resulting in a severe shortage of such coal. At the same time, most enterprises have small furnace capacities and insufficient environmental protection facilities; they face bottlenecks such as simplified equipment, low-level production processes, and a limited market scope. Safety and environmental protection pose serious challenges, making it urgent to accelerate upgrades and transformations. Controlling the scale of the industry and focusing on the development of coal gasification have become the goals for such upgrades. 　　According to the \"Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Upgrading, Transformation, and Green, Safe Development of the Lanzhou Coke Industry in Yulin City (2019–2021)\") issued by Yulin City recently, all lanzhou coke enterprises in the city must complete environmental upgrades by the end of 2020, so that their pollutant emissions meet the standards set out in the \"Emission Standards for Pollutants from Coking Chemical Industries\" (GB16171-2012), and uncontrolled VOC emissions must be brought under strict control. By the end of 2021, 1–2 large-scale projects for the efficient and clean utilization of coal through combined production methods should be established; coal pyrolysis and related technologies should reach a leading level in China. Further development should take place in the high-value processing of lanzhou coke, waste gas, and coal tar, thereby creating a distinctive coal chemical industry based on coal pyrolysis in Yulin and achieving high-quality development for the lanzhou coke industry. 　　Zhang Xiangping, director of the Yulin Coal Chemical Industry Promotion Center, believes that there are currently over 20 types of pyrolysis technologies in China. Attention should be paid to technologies such as segmented and multi-layer pyrolysis of low-rank coal using gas as a heat carrier, rapid pyrolysis through dual circulation of low-rank coal powder and solid heat carriers, internal-heating vertical furnaces for mixed coal in Yulin (with particle size less than 30 mm), low-temperature dry distillation of small-grained coal using the fifth-generation Shenmu Sanjiang SJ-V type furnace, and low-temperature pyrolysis of coal powder using solid heat carriers. It is necessary to develop industrial-scale production processes and equipment as soon as possible in order to drive the upgrading of the semi-coke industry.