【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】The First Industrial Pilot Project from 2010 to 2019: Production of High-Carbon Alcohols and Liquid Fuels in Ten Thousand Tons per Year via One-Step Synthesis of Syngas

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Ten years of rapid development in chemical technology – praise for China’s prosperity and strength. This is just a starting point; more participation will make things even more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with your involvement; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. Everyone should focus on safety and know how to handle emergencies. ********************************************* On November 26th, the research project titled “Development of Co-Co2C (cobalt–cobalt carbide) based catalysts for the production of high-carbon alcohols from syngas, along with evaluation tests using facilities capable of handling ten thousand tons per year” was approved as a scientific achievement in Beijing. The evaluation was carried out by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. This technical trial is part of the Class A strategic pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and represents the interim research results of the major scientific and technological task under this project: an industrial demonstration for the production of 10,000 tons per year of mixed alcohols from syngas, along with diesel. High-carbon alcohols are important raw materials in the fine chemical industry, used for synthesizing plasticizers, detergents, surfactants, and various other fine chemicals; the products derived from them find wide applications in fields such as textiles, papermaking, and pharmaceuticals. “For example, the shampoos that people use in their daily lives are made from higher alcohols. ”said Ding Yunjie, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Dalian Institute). With the rapid development of China’s fine chemical industry, the annual demand for high-carbon alcohols in the domestic market exceeds 2 million tons, with a growth rate of 10% per year. However, for a long time, the raw materials and process technologies for the international mainstream method of producing high-carbon alcohols – the hydroformylation of high-carbon olefins – have been monopolized by foreign countries. Domestic companies generally use oils such as palm oil to produce higher-carbon alcohols through hydrogenation; the annual production capacity is around 700,000 tons. The raw materials used are entirely imported, expensive, and of unstable supply. Faced with this dilemma, scientists have been pondering: since our country lacks oil but is rich in coal, is it possible to produce high-carbon alcohols directly from coal? With this idea in mind, in 2004, Ding Yunjie led his research team to develop a new catalyst – a novel cobalt-cobalt carbide-based catalyst. This catalyst enables the one-step production of higher carbon alcohols from syngas derived from coal. In 2018, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Yulin Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. jointly launched the \"Industrial Demonstration Project for Producing 10,000 tons per year of mixed alcohols from syngas, along with diesel.\" Ding Yunjie explained that for the first time, this project used cobalt-cobalt carbide-based catalysts to carry out the world’s first industrial trial on a scale of 10,000 tons, in a large-scale slurry bed reactor, to produce high-carbon alcohols and liquid fuels in a single step from syngas. From October 31 to November 2 this year, this industrial test passed the catalyst performance assessment over a period of 72 consecutive hours. At a device load of 30%, the overall conversion rate of syngas is greater than 84%, the methane selectivity is less than 6%, and the total selectivity for alcohols/aldehydes is greater than 42%. Furthermore, by adjusting the catalyst, the project can modify the ratio of higher-carbon alcohols to liquid fuels in the products, which is in line with China’s policy of vigorously developing coal-based liquid fuels to ensure energy security. This approach can significantly improve the economic efficiency of companies that produce coal-based fuels, as well as the economic viability and risk resistance of such facilities. At the same time, high-carbon alcohols can be used as raw materials to produce high-carbon α‑olefins, thereby alleviating the shortage of base oils for lubricants in China. The catalyst carrier used in the project is a carbon material, which is easy to recycle, enabling low or even zero solid waste generation. Experts from the evaluation committee believe that the cobalt–cobalt carbide-based catalysts for producing high-carbon alcohols from syngas have yielded 11 authorized invention patents; they represent original technology with advanced performance metrics and strong applicability, ranking at the international leading level. Experts recommend accelerating the construction of full-process industrial demonstration facilities. Li Yadong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University, commented that this project opens up a new pathway for the clean conversion of syngas into high-value fine chemicals such as high-carbon alcohols, providing a new direction for the efficient utilization of oxygen in syngas. It represents a significant advancement in the transformation of syngas-based chemistry toward higher value and greater sophistication. The promotion and implementation of this project will provide a cheap and abundant source of raw materials for the fine chemical industry that uses high-carbon alcohols as inputs.