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Big news! The world’s largest project for producing hydrogen from coal through cleaner methods has been put into operation, utilizing this cutting-edge technology” ； The world’s first production facility for 10,000-tonne-scale coal-based biodegradable materials has begun operations. Original post dated 2022-09-20 09:40 · Daily Economic News. Edited by Bi Luming. According to CCTV News on September 20, the world’s largest pressure swing adsorption facility for coal-to-hydrogen production was put into operation in Yulin, Shaanxi on September 19, and this will play a significant role in promoting the clean and efficient conversion of coal in China. Meanwhile, on the 19th, the demonstration project of Yulin Chemical Company under the Energy Group, which is capable of producing 50,000 tons per year of polyglycolic acid-based biodegradable materials, completed all its production processes and was officially put into operation. World’s largest clean coal-to-hydrogen project comes online officially. According to CCTV News on the 20th, on September 19, the world’s largest pressure swing adsorption facility for coal-to-hydrogen production was put into operation in Yulin, Shaanxi, which will play a significant role in promoting the clean and efficient conversion of coal in China. This coal-to-hydrogen plant utilizes proprietary large-scale pressure swing adsorption technology developed independently; using coal as raw material, it has an annual hydrogen production capacity of 350,000 tons. As an important means for the efficient and clean utilization of coal resources, this technology is of great significance to China’s energy security, socioeconomic development, and environmental improvement. https://p3-sign.toutiaoimg.com/tos-cn-i-tjoges91tu/THvzgZb34JKerW~noop.image?_iz=58558&from=article.pc_detail&x-expires=1664265506&x-signature=eroZqCyRo6A5MA5aJmOJl4uF1%2B8%3D Image source: Screenshot from CCTV News video. This project overcame the challenges related to process technology and design and manufacturing in large-scale coal-to-hydrogen facilities, enabling it to replace and surpass foreign technologies. It not only established a pathway for converting coal into petrochemical products but also facilitated resource recovery, pollution control, and carbon emission reduction. https://p3-sign.toutiaoimg.com/tos-cn-i-tjoges91tu/THvzgaa44QOHBp~noop.image?_iz=58558&from=article.pc_detail&x-expires=1664265506&x-signature=oCezXLQcEsoGdaAswPTk7YvdVSU%3D Image source: Screenshot from CCTV News video. Coal-to-hydrogen production involves using coal as a reducing agent and steam as an oxidizing agent; at high temperatures, carbon is converted into syngas composed mainly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Through processes such as purification, carbon monoxide conversion, and further purification, hydrogen and syngas are produced. The hydrogen produced by CNOOC Refining & Chemical is primarily used in the hydrogenation units of oil refining and in the butanol units of the chemical industry, to produce high-quality clean petroleum products and chemical substances. According to a report by China News Network on May 7, reporters learned from CNOOC Refining & Chemical Co., Ltd. that China’s first coal-to-hydrogen production facility using E-Gas technology, located in Huizhou, Guangdong, has been operating steadily for over 270 days now, producing more than 55,000 tons of hydrogen in total. This demonstrates that China’s technology for producing hydrogen from coal gasification is at an advanced level within the industry. Zhou Jianxin, deputy manager of the coal-based hydrogen production department at Huizhou Petrochemical, Sinopec Refining & Chemicals, explained that currently there are only two E-Gas coal-based hydrogen production plants in operation worldwide, and these plants feature high carbon conversion rates, efficient heat utilization, and low oxygen consumption. Compared to traditional natural gas-based hydrogen production processes, it can reduce costs by 20% to 25%. This facility ensures that pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and wastewater are discharged at levels that meet the specified standards, reaching an advanced level for the industry. The world’s first production facility for 10,000-tonnes of coal-based biodegradable materials came online. According to CCTV News on the 19th, the demonstration project at Yulin Chemical Company of the Energy Group, which is capable of producing 50,000 tonnes of polylactic acid-based biodegradable materials per year, completed all its production processes and was officially put into operation. The biodegradable materials produced by the project can largely replace single-use plastic products. In natural environments such as soil and seawater, they can be completely and harmlessly degraded within just six months to a year. **Yan Guochun, head of the project on polyglycolic acid biodegradable materials at the Energy Group: Through years of innovative practices, we can now produce not only traditional plastics from coal, but also biodegradable plastics like polyglycolic acid. Compared to the production of traditional plastics, coal consumption per ton of polyglycolic acid can be reduced by 1/2, while carbon dioxide emissions during production are reduced by 2/3. With technological advancements and increased scale, costs can approach those of traditional plastic production. https://p3-sign.toutiaoimg.com/tos-cn-i-tjoges91tu/THvzgbfFmHwbMQ~noop.image?_iz=58558&from=article.pc_detail&x-expires=1664265506&x-signature=Phc2ezj4l2yL1%2Fj59itUPMojKUk%3D Image source: Screenshot from CCTV News. This material can be used to manufacture disposable tableware, plastic bags and other household items; it also has a wide range of applications in high-end fields such as medical sutures, agricultural plastic films, and the extraction of unconventional oil and gas underground. Promote the comprehensive utilization of coal chemical industry in our country, driving its development toward a direction of \"high-endization, diversification, and low carbon emissions\". Liu Zhongmin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences: Biodegradable plastics represent a new direction; globally, their production volume is less than 1%. There is a potential for replacing them by several tens of millions of tons, which indicates that the market potential is enormous. Considering the emission reduction effects, carbon cutting, as well as the cost savings, it is foreseeable that coal chemical industry’s use in producing biodegradable plastics will be a rapidly developing new trend. What impact will biodegradable materials have on our lives, and is there any difference in their use? To understand the application of biodegradable materials in real life, researchers carried out pilot demonstrations in some communities to see how well residents were using them. https://p3-sign.toutiaoimg.com/tos-cn-i-tjoges91tu/THvzgcq9zb6RYF~noop.image?_iz=58558&from=article.pc_detail&x-expires=1664265506&x-signature=xfBBGAta6XTJdLBykwqKxa0Fncc%3D Image source: Screenshot from CCTV News. The most widespread use of biodegradable materials is in garbage bags, which are essential in every household. According to Beijing’s regulations on waste sorting, kitchen waste must be taken out of its bags before being disposed of, that is, the waste should be poured directly into the kitchen waste bin, while plastic bags should be thrown away separately in other bins. But in practice, it is both troublesome and unhygienic. This has also become one of the biggest pain points and difficulties in waste sorting. In response to this situation, starting from April this year, researchers have successively carried out pilot projects on biodegradable waste bags in various communities in Beijing. To date, nearly 1.2 million garbage bags have been distributed. **Yan Guochun, the person in charge of the polyglycolic acid biodegradable materials project at the Energy Group, said: Currently, polyglycolic acid is primarily used as a biomaterial; it boasts excellent biodegradability, good mechanical properties, and biocompatibility. It can be utilized in bone and nerve tissue engineering to guide bone and nerve regeneration, and it gradually degrades during the tissue repair process, thereby avoiding damage from additional surgeries. The cost of polyglycolic acid produced from coal has been significantly reduced, allowing this high-quality material to replace single-use plastic products and playing an important role in addressing white pollution. Daily Economic News, compiled from CCTV News and China News Network