Current Status and Prospects of China’s Coal Chemical Industry
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2007 was a year of steady progress for China’s coal chemical industry. Against the backdrop of international oil prices reaching levels above $100 per barrel and an increasing global demand for alternative chemical raw materials and energy sources, China’s coal chemical sector, with its advanced level of industrial development, became an important part of the country’s energy structure. Investment opportunities in the coal chemical industry continue to attract significant attention from both domestic and international investors. Continuous breakthroughs are being made in the industrial scale-up of coal chemical technologies; the construction of large-scale coal-to-oil and coal-to-olefins plants is progressing smoothly; and product standards for related substances such as dimethyl ether have been established one after another. Guided by the National Development and Reform Commission’s “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Coal Chemical Industry Project Construction to Promote the Healthy Development of the Sector,” China’s coal chemical industry is developing in an orderly manner, with coal-to-oil and MTO/MTP demonstration plants set to be completed and put into operation within the scheduled time frame. Affected by the National Development and Reform Commission’s ban on new projects using natural gas for chemical purposes, coal-based methanol will become the main source of methanol in China. As for the much-discussed \"Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for Coal Chemical Industry,\" the official document still had not been released in 2007, despite the release of a draft for feedback at the end of 2006. Since its construction began in August 2004, Shenhua Group’s world’s first industrial facility for direct coal liquefaction has made steady progress; by the end of 2007, 98% of the construction work had been completed, and a number of milestone-level technological breakthroughs were achieved: the world’s first commercial direct coal liquefaction technology ； The world’s first complete set of technologies for the production of nanoscale catalysts for direct coal liquefaction ； Technology for manufacturing and lifting the world’s largest and heaviest hydrogenation reactors ； China’s first set of applications for fluidized-bed hydrogenation (T-STAR) technology, etc. In 2007, alcohol-ether fuels in China experienced significant development; the capacity of methanol and dimethyl ether production facilities that were put into operation that year reached several million tons each. Moreover, the total capacity of facilities under construction also reached tens of millions of tons, laying the foundation for the advent of the era of alcohol-ether fuels. The product standard for dimethyl ether for use in urban gas, issued by the Ministry of Construction, has removed obstacles to the use of dimethyl ether fuel in civilian applications. Newao Group has taken a leading position in the dimethyl ether fuel industry thanks to its strong advantages in civilian gas distribution channels, with industry giants such as Jutai Energy, Lanhua Kechuang, and Hubei Tianma following closely behind. Breakthroughs have also been achieved in the use of dimethyl ether in vehicles; driven by a industry-academia-research consortium composed of nine organizations including the Energy Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shenwo Bus, Shangchai Group, and Shanghai Huayi, tests on the use of dimethyl ether in vehicles have been **successful**. In 2007, China’s coal chemical industry gradually moved away from relying solely on imported technologies; technologies with independent intellectual property rights saw rapid development, enabling the country to achieve a leading position globally. Among them are the Shenhua direct coal-to-oil technology, which is about to enter industrial production; the DMTO technology developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, for which a catalyst factory with an annual capacity of 2,000 tons has been built; the water-coal slurry gasification technology developed by Yankuang and East China University of Science and Technology, which is being exported abroad; and the methanol-to-gasoline technology that came online in Yunnan in December. The development of coal chemical industry has driven the growth of the coal chemical equipment industry. Driven by market demand, the coal chemical equipment industry has also received attention from **the relevant regulatory authorities. The development of large-scale coal chemical processing equipment has been listed as one of the 16 key technical and equipment projects to be vigorously developed in the future, with the localization of such equipment being a priority. In 2007, China’s coal chemical industry developed steadily under the guidance of the **National Development and Reform Commission**, with the joint efforts of relevant enterprises and local authorities at all levels. High-capital, high-output projects such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-olefins are set to go into production soon ； Alkyl ether fuels have seen vigorous development thanks to the introduction of product standards ； Technologies with independent intellectual property rights are beginning to gain a competitive edge and be exported. China’s coal chemical industry offers new alternatives for energy sources and chemical raw materials in an environment of high oil prices, thereby ensuring the country’s energy security and the sustainable development of its economy.
The prospects of coal chemical industry depend, on the one hand, on technology, and on the other hand – and this is equally important – on the coal source
It was cited, right? There are some issues in it. “\"Represented by Yankuang-Huadong University of Science and Technology’s water-coal slurry gasification technology exported abroad, as well as the methanol-to-gasoline technology put into operation in Yunnan in December,\" – to which country was that gasification technology exported? Which university or research institute developed the MTG technology? Is it to dissolve oneself? Can you give an answer?
MTG is actually an evolution of the FTO synthesis as well.
Recently, China’s first set of production facilities for maleic anhydride, with a capacity of 20,000 tons per year per unit, as well as the accompanying continuous distillation unit with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year, which were independently developed by our institute, were successfully put into operation at Shanxi Xinhetaiming Chemical Co., Ltd. They are operating stably, marking a new advancement in China’s technology for producing maleic anhydride. At present, the scale of succinic anhydride production facilities in our country is generally small; the largest capacity for a single facility using the n-butane method is 10,000 tons per year, while the maximum capacity for facilities using the benzene method is also 10,000 tons per year. Many production facilities have a capacity of only a few thousand tons. As early as 2000, the Shanxi Coal Chemical Research Institute built China’s first anhydride production facility with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons at Shanxi Xinhe Tai Ming Chemical Co., Ltd. The products met industry standards and were sold both domestically and internationally. In recent years, the demand for maleic anhydride in our country has been increasing year by year, and the production scale of enterprises has expanded rapidly. There is an ever-growing need in the domestic market for high-quality large-scale reactors for producing maleic anhydride through oxidation processes. To further improve quality and reduce costs as well as energy consumption, my team specializing in maleic anhydride has focused on increasing the capacity of large fixed-bed reactors. We used turbines to drive fans, and for the first time adopted continuous distillation instead of batch distillation. As a result, China’s first maleic anhydride production facility with an annual capacity of 20,000 tons, as well as a continuous distillation facility with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons, were established. More than 3 months of operation have shown that the succinic anhydride produced by this large-scale manufacturing facility not only features high quality and stability, but also sees a 10% reduction in raw material consumption and a 60% reduction in energy consumption during production. This has greatly enhanced the competitiveness of succinic anhydride products in the international market, and it plays a positive role in promoting the technological approach in China for producing succinic anhydride using coked benzene as a raw material.
China’s coal chemical industry offers new alternatives for energy sources and chemical raw materials in an environment of high oil prices. It is a new alternative source of energy.