Second visit to Ordos for research on the energy and chemical industry’s \"Golden Triangle\": What new achievements can be seen?

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Second visit to Ordos for research on the energy and chemical industry’s \"Golden Triangle\": What new achievements can be seen? Author/Source: Coal Chemical Industry Date: 2019-08-28 Clicks: 12 From August 21 to 23, a major research mission focused on the coordinated development of the industries in the energy and chemical industry’s \"Golden Triangle\" was conducted in Ordos. During this mission, visits were made to Yitai Coal-to-Oil Company, Jutai Energy Zhungeer Company, Zhongke Synthetic Oil Technology Company, and Yigao Coal Chemical Company, all located in the Dalu Industrial Park in Zhungeer Banner; as well as to China National Coal Group Yuanxing Company and Boda Field Company, which are situated in the Nalinhe Industrial Zone in Wushen Banner. The region as a hub for innovative applications of indirect coal-based oil production across the country, a pioneer in Inner Mongolia’s coal-based polyester industry, and a testing ground for the recycling of saline wastewater from coal chemical processes – these were the lasting impressions left on the research team by this visit. Shi Yongwang, head of the Party and Mass Work Department at Dali Industrial Park, and Jin Feng, director of the park’s Finance Bureau, explained that Dali Park is located near the Yellow River, and it is surrounded by three major coal fields: the Zhungeer Coal Field, the Central Zhungeer Coal Field, and the Dongsheng Coal Field. Thus, it enjoys a unique advantage in terms of the combination of water and coal resources. At the same time, Daliu Park is only 87 kilometers away from Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, and is connected by railways and highways, offering excellent conditions for establishing large-scale energy and chemical industry bases such as those for coal chemical processing. The planned area of its coal chemical industry base is 78 square kilometers, with a focus on developing coal-to-oil, coal-to-gas, coal-to-methanol, dimethyl ether, coal-to-olefins, coal-to-aromatics, coal-to-ethylene glycol and other coal chemical as well as downstream fine chemical industries. Currently, the park is home to a number of key enterprises such as Yitai Coal-to-Oil, Jutai Energy, and Zhongke Synthetic Oil. The three major projects – Sinopec’s 800,000 tons per year coal-to-olefins facility, Yitai’s 2 million tons per year coal-to-oil plant, and Beikong’s 4 billion cubic meters per year coal-to-gas plant – have all received approval documents and have commenced construction. Looking to the future, Dalu Industrial Park is striving to become a **modern coal chemical industry demonstration base**, as well as an industrial park in Inner Mongolia with a value of 100 billion yuan. By 2020, the park aims to achieve three \"1000\" targets: fixed asset investment of 100 billion yuan, coal chemical product production of 10 million tons, and sales revenue of 100 billion yuan. The research team held discussions with the leaders of Yitai Coal-to-Oil Company. Yitai Group is the largest coal enterprise in Inner Mongolia; it has for many years ranked first among local enterprises in Ordos in terms of its economic contribution, and its economic efficiency and safety standards are among the best in the national coal industry. Indirect coal-to-oil conversion is a shining asset of Yitai Group. Since 2002, Yitai Group has been actively involved in the research and development of high-temperature slurry-bed Fischer-Tropsch synthesis oil processing technology at the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2005, this achievement passed the acceptance review by the **\"863\" expert group. In 2006, leveraging this technology, Yitai Group invested 40.4% to take a controlling stake in the establishment of Zhongke Synthetic Oil Technology Company, with the aim of advancing the industrialization of the core technologies for indirect coal liquefaction. It also led the creation of Yitai Coal-to-Oil Company, investing 4.3 billion yuan in the development of an integrated industry-academia-research facility as well as a demonstration plant for indirect coal liquefaction. In March 2009, China’s first demonstration production line for coal indirect liquefaction with an annual capacity of 160,000 tons was put into operation, marking a significant milestone in the history of coal-to-oil development in the country. Zhang Zhigong, chairman and general manager of Yitai Coal-to-Oil Company, said that Yitai’s 160,000 tons per year production line has indeed played an important role as a model for the whole country. It is not only the first coal-to-oil project to be built but also the best-operating coal-based indirect oil production facility at present. Before 2015, the facility mainly produced oil products, with annual profits reaching 170 million yuan; thereafter, as oil prices fell, the operation shifted to the production of chemicals such as LPG, stable light hydrocarbons, and fischer-tropsch wax. While most other coal-to-oil projects in China were not profitable, the Yitai demonstration project has managed to achieve consistent profitability in recent years. The company subsequently built a 1.2 million tons per year coal-based fine chemicals project in Hangjin Banner, Ordos, and the project is currently operating at a level exceeding its designed capacity. Currently, the company is building a demonstration plant for the indirect liquefaction of coal with an annual capacity of 2 million tons. The total investment in this project exceeds 29 billion yuan; it will be able to process 11 million tons of coal per year, producing 1.389 million tons of diesel, 480,000 tons of naphtha, 176,000 tons of LPG, and 108,000 tons of LNG. Once operational, the plant is expected to generate annual revenue of around 10 billion yuan. Guided by the principle of \"using oil when appropriate, using chemical processes when suitable, combining both approaches, and maximizing value,\" Yitai Coal-to-Oil Company has, through research and innovation, continued to expand its downstream industrial chain toward high-end specialty chemicals. This has enabled it to improve the economic viability of its projects as well as the added value of its products, achieving a continuous transformation and advancement from basic raw materials to clean fuels, then to specialty chemicals, and finally to functional materials. The inspection team visited Jutai Energy. Lu Zhenlin, assistant to the general manager of Jutai Energy’s Zhungeer plant, informed the team that, on top of the 1 million tons per year coal-to-methanol and 600,000 tons per year coal-to-olefins facilities already in operation, Jutai is currently building a third phase project for the production of 1.2 million tons per year of coal-to-ethylene glycol. The equipment is scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2020, with production set to begin in 2021. In the long term, Jiu Tai will also actively expand its industrial chain, foster industrial clusters, and plan to build coal-based aromatic hydrocarbon projects, thereby creating a complete industrial chain for coal-based polyester new materials, PET, and establishing itself as a leading enterprise in the field of coal-based new materials. The research team visited Zhongke Synthetic Oil’s Inner Mongolia branch. Li Guoqiang, the head of R&D at this branch, welcomed the team. It is known that Zhongke Synthetic Oil is the third company in the world to develop technology for coal indirect liquefaction, after Sasol in South Africa and Shell in the Netherlands. The company was the first in the world to develop high-temperature slurry-bed FTO synthesis catalysts as well as the corresponding technical systems. At the beginning of 2015, a production line capable of manufacturing 12,000 tons of catalysts was established, sufficient to meet the catalyst needs of the first commercial-scale coal-to-oil projects of tens of millions of tons each. Currently, its specialized catalysts have been used in various coal-to-oil conversion projects such as Yitai, Shenhua Ningmei, and Shanxi Lu’an, all of which have achieved stable, continuous, and high-performance operation, with their performance indicators at the international leading level. The company places great emphasis on innovation and possesses a range of high-end innovation platforms, including **-level key laboratories, ** engineering laboratories, and a research and development center for coal-based liquid fuels. It has obtained 87 Chinese invention patents and 27 international invention patents, holding core independent intellectual property rights in the field of coal indirect liquefaction. In addition to research and innovation in catalysts for the indirect liquefaction of coal, the company is currently expanding into downstream, more advanced catalysts such as those used for producing high-purity gasoline, as well as developing technologies for the treatment of waste catalysts. The research team visited Yigao Coal Chemical Company. Zhang Huifeng, the general manager of this company, explained that it is the only large-scale coal chemical enterprise established on the Chinese mainland by the Hong Kong-funded company China Gas Group. The company currently has a production capacity of 200,000 tons per year of methanol produced from coal, and 120,000 tons per year of ethylene glycol produced from coal. Its coal-based ethylene glycol production project utilizes technology from Shanghai Pujing Company, enabling stable operation over long periods of time. In particular, the reaction activity of the carbonylation catalyst and hydrogenation catalyst, as well as the bed pressure drop, have remained stable throughout the year; cost control is excellent. Even with currently very low prices for ethylene glycol, the company is still able to maintain stable operations. The inability of coal-based ethylene glycol to operate stably over long periods of time, along with its unstable light transmittance, were major challenges that prevented its widespread use in polyester production. To address these issues, Yigao Coal Chemicals adopted a combined distillation and aldehyde/degreasing process, which increased the light transmittance at 275nm for the polyester-grade ethylene glycol produced to over 96% (**the standard is 92%**). This product has now successfully found its way into the supply chains of domestic polyester manufacturers. “Coal-based ethylene glycol has cost advantages over ethylene glycol produced from petroleum-based routes. In the future, we will focus on improving refined management and accelerating technological innovation in order to continue reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and enhancing product quality. We believe that, in the long run, coal-derived ethylene glycol will gain even greater competitive advantages. ” The research team visited China Coal Yuanxing Company. This company is a joint venture between China Coal Energy and Inner Mongolia Yuanxing Energy, operating on a mixed-ownership basis. Its main production facility, capable of producing 600,000 tons of coal-based methanol per year, is the first large-scale coal chemical project to be constructed and put into operation in the Nalin River Industrial Park. The treatment of saline wastewater from coal chemical industries and the recycling of crystallized substances are key features of this enterprise; the investment in such projects amounts to 410 million yuan, with annual operating costs reaching 60 million yuan. It is understood that in the first phase of its comprehensive water treatment project, 5,000 cubic meters of chemical-concentrated brine and 24,000 cubic meters of mine dewatering water are treated per day, resulting in a total of 23,352 cubic meters of treated water per day. The quality of this treated water meets the requirements for use as makeup water in closed-loop systems, and it is supplied to the enterprises in the industrial park. In the second phase, the treatment capacity is 4,800 cubic meters per day, yielding 4,560 cubic meters of treated water per day; meanwhile, anhydrous sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and other salts are produced as by-products. In 2018, 28,135 tons of sodium sulfate and 1,108 tons of sodium chloride were produced, thereby achieving zero discharge of saline wastewater and the sustainable utilization of these crystalline resources. The treatment of saline wastewater from coal chemical industries is a common challenge across the sector. Zhongmei Yuanxing Company believes that addressing this issue requires significant financial investment from enterprises, imposing heavy burdens and pressures; therefore, policy support, guidance, and incentives are essential. The research team visited Boda Site. Boda Site is a Sino-foreign joint venture established with joint investment from Yuanxing Energy and South Korea’s LG; its main industry is coal-based urea. Its 50/80 fertilizer production facility was put into operation at the beginning of 2014, and it currently produces 580,000 tons of synthetic ammonia, 1 million tons of urea, and 100,000 tons of compound fertilizers, which are sold in both domestic and international markets. Qi Shiping, the company’s chief engineer, explained that in recent years, in light of the changes brought about by the deeper structural reforms in the fertilizer industry’s supply side and the accelerated development of agricultural modernization, the company has focused on developing new types of fertilizers such as value-added urea, compound fertilizers, organic-inorganic mixed fertilizers, and soil conditioners, as well as fertilizers tailored for specific crops and package fertilizers. It has also placed emphasis on expanding its agrochemical services, by providing services such as soil testing and fertilizer formulation, as well as agricultural technical guidance in the fields, thereby achieving significant results in reducing fertilizer use while improving efficiency.