Sinopec: Developing coal chemical industry, focusing on new energy sources

Thread Content

Reposted from http://www.sxcoal.com Date: March 2, 2009 Source: People’s Daily To address the increasingly severe energy and environmental issues, in recent years Sinopec has, with **’s support, intensified its efforts to develop clean and new energy sources, striving to build an environment-friendly enterprise, and has achieved notable results. 　 　Sinopec has been implementing a planned, step-by-step upgrade of the quality of gasoline, diesel, and kerosene since 1998. Through efforts, Sinopec phased out 70# gasoline starting in 1999; by 2000, all gasoline met the requirements for being lead-free and in line with the newly established quality standards. By 2002, the quality of diesel met the requirements of GB252—2000 standards, and by 2003, all gasoline produced by Sinopec met the requirements of GB17930—1999 standards (with a sulfur content of no more than 500 ppm). In line with the goals of a \"Green Olympics\" and a \"Technology-driven Olympics,\" Sinopec Yanshan Branch spent two years and invested 2.7 billion yuan to introduce advanced foreign technologies and upgrade its refinery capacity to handle tens of millions of tons of oil per year. Starting from March 1, 2008, it began supplying clean fuels that met the EU IV standards in the Beijing area, making a significant contribution to fulfilling Beijing’s commitment to clear skies during the Olympic Games. 　　 From 1998 to 2008, China Petrochemical’s proven natural gas reserves increased from 95.7 billion cubic meters to 1,336.3 billion cubic meters, a 13-fold increase; natural gas production rose from 2.3 billion cubic meters to 8.3 billion cubic meters, a 2.6-fold increase. Several major natural gas production areas were established, including those in Sichuan, Ordos, southern Songliao, the Bohai Bay region, and Tarim. In particular, in recent years, Sinopec has achieved a major breakthrough in marine sediment exploration in southern China by leveraging theoretical and technical innovations to discover the Puguang gas field in the marine sedimentary area of northeastern Sichuan. 　　 Actively develop alternative and new energy sources to enrich and improve the energy structure. In the field of methanol-to-olefins, in 2007 Sinopec completed an industrial pilot plant for methanol-to-olefins (S-MTO) with a capacity of 100 tons per day. In 2008, the development of an MTO process package capable of handling an annual methanol feed of 1.8 million tons was completed; its key technical parameters reached international advanced levels, enabling the design and construction of large-scale industrial MTO plants. In terms of coal-to-oil technology, a 3,000-ton/year plant was built in Zhenhai in 2006, and by 2008 the process package for an industrial fixed-bed plant with a capacity of 700,000 tons/year had been prepared. 　 　Sinopec took on the technical preparatory work prior to the pilot implementation of ethanol gasoline for use in vehicles in China. It carried out feasibility studies on ethanol gasoline for vehicle use as well as systematic research on the application technologies related to it. On this basis, it drafted and submitted for review the two standards, namely \"Ethanol Gasoline for Vehicle Use\" and \"Denatured Fuel Ethanol\", providing an important technical foundation for the relevant authorities in formulating policies, regulations, standards, guidelines, and pilot implementation plans for the promotion of ethanol gasoline in vehicles. The SRCA method for biodiesel production has been successfully developed, and industrial-scale tests have been carried out at the Shijiazhuang refinery. At the same time, Sinopec has actively taken part in the construction of fuel ethanol projects such as those operated by Henan Tianguan Group with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year and Anhui Fengyuan Group with a capacity of 320,000 tons per year. It has also joined forces with COFCO Group to build China’s first fuel ethanol plant in Hepu, Guangxi, with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year, using cassava as the raw material instead of grains.