【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】030-2023: 30 Years Since the Commissioning of China’s First Pressurized Coal Water Slurry Gasifier

Coal is the primary energy source and an important raw material in our country. The resource profile of our country, characterized by abundant coal but limited oil and gas reserves, determines the importance of coal in the energy consumption structure. To produce a range of chemical products from coal, it is first necessary to convert the coal into gas. However, before 1993, the coal chemical industry in our country primarily relied on fixed-bed gasification technology, which was outdated and inefficient. In 1983, with the approval of the former Ministry of Chemical Industry and the **Planning Commission, Lunan Chemical began to introduce the world’s fifth and China’s first set of Texaco water-coal slurry gasification furnace technology. Construction of the facility began in 1990, and it was completed on April 11, 1993, with a successful trial run using chemical feedstock from the very first attempt. This gasification furnace was claimed to represent the most advanced coal gasification technology in the world at that time; however, since it had just been developed, only four such units were put into industrial use worldwide, and it was the first industrial demonstration unit of its kind in our country. To follow a path that combined introduction with local development, only the key process software packages were imported at that time, while some auxiliary equipment was sourced locally, reducing investment by nearly half compared to installing a fully imported setup. Due to the imperfections in the original technology and the technical restrictions imposed by the technology owners on users, the operation was unstable after starting the machine, and frequent tripping of interlocks occurred, causing great difficulties for the engineering and technical staff at Lunan Chemical. The direct loss from a single stoppage exceeds 600,000 yuan, making any economic benefit impossible to talk about.

In order to \"tame\" this \"foreign technology,\" under the leadership and coordination of the Ministry of Chemical Industry at that time, Lunan Chemical organized researchers, designers, manufacturers, as well as the technical experts from its own company to carry out arduous technical efforts through self-reliance. Over a period of more than two years, 17 technical problems related to water-coal slurry gasification, 8 technical issues related to gas purification, as well as problems associated with the use of sulfur-resistant catalysts were resolved. The new system reached full operational capacity in 1995; that same year, this achievement was awarded the **First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, and Lunan Chemical was honored by Texaco with the Award for Best Overseas Operation. This process of introduction, research and development, and further innovation is aptly likened in the industry to the willingness to be the first to \"try something new.\" It not only enabled Lunan Chemical to acquire Texaco’s new gasification technology and strengthen its workforce, but it also allowed the company to develop a range of new technologies and proprietary techniques on its own, thereby boosting national confidence and paving a successful path that combines introduction with digestion, absorption, and innovation. Experts from the Ministry of Chemical Industry noted during the evaluation and acceptance of this technology that the success of this system not only established a completely new coal chemical processing route but also provided valuable experience for further promoting this new technology in China.

According to incomplete statistics, from the 1980s to the early 2000s, the patent licensing fees alone for foreign gasification units introduced across China amounted to over 300 million dollars. Moreover, for many innovations in new manufacturing methods, the inventors only have the right to use them, while the patent rights remain with the owners of those technologies – this is also part of the \"rules of the game\" and the cost associated with introducing foreign technologies. To break the monopoly and free China’s coal chemical industry from foreign control. In May 2003, the thousand-ton-scale industrial demonstration plant for the new multi-nozzle opposed water-coal slurry gasification technology, a research project under the \"10th Five-Year Plan\" and the \"863 Program\" jointly developed by the former Yankuang Group and East China University of Science and Technology, began construction at Yankuang Guotai. On July 21, 2005, this system successfully processed feedstock for the first time, producing qualified raw gas. Industrial operation showed that the effective gas content of the new gasifier reached 83%, which is 1.5%–2% higher than that of the Texaco production unit under similar conditions; the carbon conversion rate was greater than 98%, also 2%–3% higher than that of Texaco ； Both the coal consumption and oxygen consumption are 7% lower than those of Texaco. Over the following year or so, the company’s engineering and technical staff, through technological innovation, overcame nearly a thousand technical challenges and developed a new \"pressurized continuous feeding\" process that is at the world’s advanced level, thereby enhancing the safety, stability, and cost-effectiveness of this type of furnace. At the acceptance meeting for the “863” project organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology on May 31, 2006, the members of the evaluation panel unanimously concluded that the “new type of water-coal slurry gasification technology” was internationally advanced and domestically leading. The successful industrialization of this technology marked the first time that China possessed a large-scale coal gasification technology with independent intellectual property rights, breaking the foreign technological monopoly and representing an important milestone in the history of coal gasification development in China. They also recommended that this technology be promoted and applied on an industrial scale both domestically and internationally. This technology won the **Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 2007 as well as the Special Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress awarded by the Sinopec Association. The project also received the **Golden Award for High-Quality Projects and was recognized as one of the 100 classic and outstanding projects from the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“The successful development of the new water-coal slurry gasification technology has endowed it with the capability to compete with foreign coal gasification technologies, forcing foreign companies to significantly reduce the patent fees for use in domestic markets. According to statistics, in 2006, the licensing fees for introducing gasification technology in the country dropped by 28% compared to 2004. From July 2007 to June 2008, Valero Energy, the largest oil refining company in the United States, sent several delegations to Yankuang Guotai Chemical Co., Ltd. to examine the application of new gasification furnace technologies. After researching and comparing foreign technologies from companies such as GE (Texaco) and Shell, in October 2008 the company decided to adopt China’s new multi-nozzle opposed-type gasification furnace technology. It formally signed a contract for technology licensing and process software package development worth approximately $16 million, thereby achieving for the first time the export of more advanced technology of this kind with fully independent intellectual property rights to the country from which the original technology originated. To date, this technology has received 50 patent approvals in the field of fluidized bed gasification, of which 3 were granted in the United States. A total of 204 units of this technology have been sold to companies such as Valero in the U.S., CNPC, Shenhua Group, and Wanhua Group; its global market share is around 35%. The amount of coal processed using this technology accounts for approximately 45% of the total global gasification capacity, making it the leading technology in this area, with incalculable potential economic value. The successful industrialization of the thousand-ton-class new multi-nozzle opposed water-coal slurry gasifier demonstrates the \"journey to realize a dream\" of China’s independent coal gasification technology. From the 1980s and 1990s, when China introduced its first set of Texaco gasification technology from the United States, to the beginning of this century, when it exported the new multi-nozzle opposed gasifier technology to the U.S., Chinese coal chemical industry professionals, through technological innovation as well as unwavering courage and determination, overcame foreign technical barriers and broke through the siege of technological monopolies, thus fulfilling the dream of having their own proprietary technologies that had been pursued by generations of entrepreneurs in this industry. This new autonomous technology can be regarded as a powerful instrument that holds high the torch of independent innovation and forms the backbone of the national industry.

I visited this gasification unit at Lunan Chemical Plant over a decade ago.