Ethanol from coal

Currently, ethanol is mainly produced through biological methods; Celanese has a demonstration facility in Nanjing, which is said to be operating well.

On December 22, 2007, the fuel ethanol production project with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons, invested in by COFCO Group and built in the Hepu Industrial Park in Guangxi, was officially put into operation.

Coal-to-ethanol production was once considered an emerging development direction for China’s coal chemical industry, with several routes available for converting coal into ethanol: 1. microbial fermentation of syngas, 2. direct hydrogenation of acetic acid, 3. hydrogenation of acetate esters, 4. catalytic synthesis of ethanol from syngas. Coal-to-ethanol has attracted attention in China’s coal chemical industry since 2011, leading to the announcement of a series of technology development and industrial demonstration projects. As of the first half of 2014, only Selenia had commissioned an industrial facility in Nanjing in 2013 with a production capacity of 275,000 tons per year, using its TCX® technology to produce coal-based ethanol. Celanese’s industrial ethanol is now available for sale on the market. In August 2013, Celanese announced an increase in the price of industrial ethanol produced from syngas in China, with the price rise amounting to 150 yuan per ton. Apart from Serranus, although eight other domestic research institutions have developed technologies for the direct hydrogenation of acetic acid or the hydrogenation of acetic esters, and most of them have completed pilot-scale process packages, no industrial demonstration plants have yet been built. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_52f526870102uyzp.html

There is a huge market for ethanol produced from coal here. Fuel ethanol: it’s not just used in the formulation of ethanol-blended gasoline; ethanol is also applied in diesel engine intakes, as well as in products related to ethanol such as diesel engine liquid boosters. There is a strong demand driven by environmental considerations: diesel trucks with a power output of over 300 horsepower consume more than 100,000 tons of ethanol raw materials per 10,000 units per year… In fact, over 10 million tons of ethanol raw materials are needed per million units per year, and this process has no connection to petroleum and is not subject to its constraints.

Ethanol market – \"Diesel Engine Liquid Booster\" for diesel engines: Its work equivalent is comparable to that of diesel fuel of the same volume. In the combustion chamber, when mixed with diesel in a ratio of 1:5 to 1:2.5, it reduces fuel consumption by 17%-25% and increases the power output of diesel engines by 17%-25%, offering energy savings, lower emissions, and environmental benefits. Patent number ZL201210031768.6

In 2017, the **\"Implementation Plan on Expanding the Production of Biofuel Ethanol and Promoting the Use of Ethanol-Gasoline in Vehicles\"** was issued; it focused solely on promoting the use of ethanol-gasoline in vehicles, while ignoring the benefits of using ethanol as an environmentally friendly fuel in diesel vehicles

The main raw material for \"Diesel Engine Liquid Booster\" is water-containing ethanol; the production process does not require dehydration, which reduces production costs. Even in the absence of any subsidy mechanisms, its potential added value increases, so profits remain unaffected. This is the bright future of coal-based ethanol.

Recently, there have been reports regarding Tangshan Zhongrong Technology’s production of ethanol from coker gas in Qian’an; the facility with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of ethanol has already come online. A 200,000-ton ethanol plant in the second phase is under construction. The annual ethanol production capacity is 300,000 tons. With such production capacity, ethanol-related products for diesel trucks in use in key cities affected by air pollution, such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, can meet the environmental emission requirements of 30,000 vehicles with power outputs over 300 horsepower in these regions.

Issues that need further clarification: Taking Tangshan Zhongrong Technology’s 300,000 tons of ethanol produced from coker gas in Qian’an as an example, if all of this ethanol were converted into \"diesel engine liquid boosters\" for use in diesel engines, then the work output equivalent of these 300,000 tons of ethanol would be greater than that of 300,000 tons of standard No. 0 diesel. It could thus replace a far larger amount of No. 0 standard diesel. In terms of energy, its significance is self-evident – it brings only benefits with no drawbacks.