The development of coal chemical technology in our country is lagging behind
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The overall level of coal gasification technology in our country has always been relatively low, with a significant gap compared to advanced technologies worldwide. The equipment and technologies available to support the development of coal gasification still fall short of meeting the actual needs of our country. At the recently held High-Level Symposium on Gasification Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and UNESCO’s Symposium on Gasification Education in China, experts expressed concern over the current state of development of advanced gasification technologies in our country. Due to the needs of national economic development, **more advanced coal gasification production technologies such as those from Lurgi and Texaco were introduced over time. Coal gasification plants in Lunan, Weihe, Shanghai and other locations were built and put into operation, thereby promoting the modernization of the coal gasification industry. However, the common feature of these devices abroad is the strict requirements for raw coal. Another issue is that introducing coal gasification technology involves high costs, which are difficult for ordinary companies to bear. It is quite difficult to popularize its use in small and medium-sized fertilizer enterprises in our country. Although China has also developed its own two-stage dry coal powder gasifiers, four-nozzle gasifiers, ash fusion gasifiers, etc., these technologies either lack large-scale commercial demonstration units or have strict requirements regarding the type of coal used, making it difficult to meet the needs of the rapidly developing large-scale coal chemical industry. The experts present believed that this situation is largely due to the **absence of mandatory environmental protection support policies, as well as a lack of systematic and comprehensive incentive measures. **A lack of sufficient financial subsidies and inadequate policy support also result in insufficient motivation for enterprises to engage in research and development. Our country urgently needs to establish a **promotion mechanism** to swiftly develop a comprehensive plan for promoting coal gasification technologies that suit our national conditions. We should actively promote the coal gasification technologies developed by our own country and owned under independent intellectual property rights. It is necessary to accelerate the development and construction of a number of demonstration plants for coal gasification, and to formulate incentive policies related to the use of advanced coal gasification technologies; such policies should provide preferential treatment to enterprises that use these advanced technologies to improve energy conversion efficiency and reduce pollution.
Reporters learned from the recently concluded China (Taiyuan) International Coal and New Energy Industries Expo that the domestic provinces rich in coal have a strong desire to develop coal chemical industries, and they are reaching out to foreign energy giants that possess core technologies for clean coal. This situation, in which foreign technology controls China’s industries, has raised concerns among insightful individuals. Due to China’s energy resource profile, which features an abundance of coal but a shortage of oil, Chinese companies are eager to develop coal chemical industries. However, at present these enterprises are introducing or considering introducing foreign core technologies, resulting in coal chemical equipment featuring a variety of international brands. At present, with the rapid development of China’s coal chemical industry, foreign energy giants have become deeply involved in it. Sasol of South Africa, which possesses mature commercial technology for coal indirect liquefaction, is partnering with Shenhua Group, China’s largest coal chemical enterprise, to build two coal indirect liquefaction plants in Ningxia and Shaanxi. These plants will have an annual production capacity of 3 million tons of oil products, which is equivalent to replacing 80,000 barrels of oil per day. In July of this year, Dutch Shell and China’s Shenhua Ningmei Group signed a similar agreement to use Shell’s coal indirect liquefaction technology in order to study the feasibility of building a coal-to-oil plant with a production capacity of 70,000 barrels of oil per day. Air Liquide of France, in partnership with Shenhua Ningmei, is building the world’s first coal-based chemical project for producing polypropylene, with an investment of around 17 billion yuan. In February this year, Germany’s Siemens Power Generation Group and Shenhua Ningmei also signed an agreement to produce alcohols and ethers from coal. Prior to this, coal chemical giants such as Lurgi, Texaco, and General Electric also exported technology to build multiple large-scale coal chemical projects in the country. Currently, foreign energy giants have deeply penetrated and even taken control of China’s coal chemical industry thanks to their core technologies. Given the huge investment requirements and the fact that the technologies related to coal-based chemical projects such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-olefins are not yet fully developed, China **decided to limit itself to the construction of demonstration projects by 2010. Some companies, despite knowing that the likelihood of success for such projects is extremely low, are eager to adopt immature coal chemical technologies from abroad. As a result, informed individuals are concerned that this ‘multi-national brand’ pattern in China’s coal chemical equipment could pose serious problems for the development of the coal chemical industry in the long term. The reporter noted that on September 17, Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemical Company and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, held a ceremony in Beijing to sign a contract for the licensing transfer of the 1.8 million tons per year methanol-to-olefins (DMTO) technology. This is China’s first large-scale domestic technology for coal chemical processing, and it holds milestone significance for developing the country’s coal chemical industry using domestic technologies. (Source: HuiCong Chemicals)
I cannot agree with your first statement: “The overall level of coal gasification technology in our country has always been backward, with a significant gap compared to world-leading technologies.” After these foreign technologies were introduced, the foreign investors failed to keep their promises and did not live up to their claims. This is the case with water-coal slurry, and the same goes for pulverized coal gasification. Both Texaco and Shell claim it can be used with any type of coal, but in reality neither has achieved this. This shows that they themselves do not understand the scope of application for this technology. We have improved Texaco technology, are working on improving Shell technology, and are researching some new technologies. It is no exaggeration to say that our country is at the forefront of global research in gasification technology!