【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】The world’s first industrial demonstration plant for the clean production of phenol was successfully put into operation between 1680 and 2014

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Happy May Day 2024! Safety first – let’s give credit and support to the achievements in China’s chemical engineering and equipment sector. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Equipment】A continuously updated summary post is available; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Forum Website) ***************** On January 28, 2014, Shennu Tianyuan Chemical Co., Ltd., part of the Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group, announced that the world’s first industrial demonstration plant for the clean production of phenol, built using its own developed composite solvent extraction technology, had been operating successfully for three months. To date, more than 600 tons of pure phenol, o-cresol, m-cresol, p-cresol, and xylene products with a purity of over 99.5% have been produced. This marks our country’s successful resolution of the global challenge related to the clean production of phenol, with the industrialization technology for such clean production reaching world-leading levels. It is reported that the coal tar composite solvent extraction process for phenol recovery developed by Tianyuan Company marked a breakthrough in the production of high-purity phenol from coal chemicals; moreover, by using composite solvents instead of acid and alkali separators, the equipment is protected from corrosion caused by acids and alkalis. This process also boasts advantages such as a long service life for equipment and catalysts, ease of operation, environmental friendliness, safety, high efficiency, stable operation, and good product quality; it has opened up a new route for phenol extraction from coal tar for phenol production enterprises in China. Industry experts point out that once Tianyuan Company’s clean production process for phenol is adopted on a wider scale, it will not only significantly raise the level of clean phenol production in China but also greatly reduce the production costs for related enterprises, thereby enhancing the international competitiveness of phenol-containing products such as pesticides and dyes. At the same time, the hydrogen consumption and overall costs of coal tar hydrogenation enterprises will also decrease significantly, which will benefit various sub-sectors of the energy and chemical industry. In April 2010, Tianyuan Company built the largest lightening production line in China for medium- and low-temperature coal tar, with a capacity of 500,000 tons per year. Since coal tar contains about 4% phenol, phenol reacts with hydrogen in the presence of hydrogen gas to produce water. This not only leads to an increased hydrogen consumption in coal tar hydrogenation units (50–60 cubic meters of hydrogen more per ton of oil processed), but it also results in the waste of valuable phenol resources, significantly reduces the lifespan and strength of catalysts, and increases the operational difficulties of these hydrogenation units. To address the aforementioned issues, the technical staff at Tianyuan Company focused on cutting-edge international technologies and began developing technologies for phenol extraction from coal tar and phenol purification. In 2012, the company overcame the core technology of the refined phenol cleaning production process: the formulation and preparation of composite solvent extractants. In the first half of 2013, Tianyuan Company invested 220 million yuan to build a production line for pure phenol with an annual capacity of 22,000 tons. After repeated optimization and tuning, the line began operations on October 28, 2013. It is understood that the production of refined phenol, both domestically and internationally, mostly relies on petroleum-based processes and acid-base methods; that is, petroleum-derived products containing phenol are used as raw materials, which are first treated with acids to separate the mixed phenols, and then neutralized with bases to obtain the refined powder. The extensive use of acids and bases not only imposes severe restrictions on the sources of raw materials in traditional processes, but also causes severe equipment corrosion and short catalyst lifespans, while generating large amounts of oily and phenolic wastewater that is difficult to treat. Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental regulations and rising prices for petroleum products, the disadvantages of traditional processes—such as high energy consumption, high costs, heavy emissions, and significant pollution—have become increasingly apparent. To this end, in recent years, many **have been striving to develop new clean production processes for phenol. But to date, only Germany and Poland have built experimental facilities. In recent years, with the development of industries such as pesticides and dyes in the field of fine chemicals, demand for refined phenols in China has continued to rise. In 2013, the national consumption of refined phenol reached 1.82 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of over 10%.