Coal chemical industry needs to build strategic technical reserves — An interview with Chen Junwu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

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This post was last edited by yinkuilin6868 on 2016-6-16 at 14:57. Coal chemical industry needs to build strategic technical reserves — An interview with Chen Junwu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Two encounters with coal. China Petroleum and Petrochemicals: As far as I know, you chose the coal chemical industry right after graduating. What led you to choose to work in coal-to-oil production, rather than in Shenyang, which was the industrial hub in Northeast China at that time? Chen Junwu: Given the circumstances at that time, the Northeast was China’s only major industrial hub, and many people went there to work. Many of my classmates from that class also went to the Northeast at that time. But when I went there, it was to work on the coal-to-oil project. In 1947, I had the opportunity to visit Fushun, the coal capital. Back then, we had a senior who worked there. He introduced me to a very special factory there that can turn coal directly into oil. Previously, the Japanese couldn’t get it up and running; now they’re considering reopening this factory. I was very happy to hear that, and I wanted to go to this factory to realize my dream. This coal-to-oil plant was originally under the jurisdiction of the Fushun Mining Bureau. The head of the Industrial Department at the Fushun Mining Bureau also strongly supported me after hearing about my ambition. I was one of the first technicians to come to this factory. China Petroleum and Petrochemicals: Before the age of 30, you worked on coal chemical projects. **After working at the Daqing Oil Field, he began to study the design of natural oil refineries and catalytic cracking. What prompted you to resume your old career in coal-to-oil production at such an advanced age? Chen Junwu: It could be considered a special scenario due to the objective environment; such situations hardly exist these days. Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are usually around 70 years old after being elected. Back then, there was no such thing as retirement; once elected as an academician, people would go to universities or research institutes to work there in a symbolic capacity, providing guidance on issues from a principled standpoint, while spending most of their time visiting family and friends. This is an irregular *custom that has developed in China. There are relatively few academicians like me who work in oil refining design firms. I feel I still have enough energy and my mind is working well, so I can get things done; therefore, I need to find some work to do. But what should be done? I have been working in oil refining engineering for several decades now, and there are many academicians who have not retired yet and are still conducting research; they are perfect to guide the younger generation. I just want to find something new to do. Fortunately, the coal industry sector and China International Consulting Corporation approached me, saying that I had experience in coal chemical engineering from my younger days, and they hoped I could help them guide and evaluate some major projects. I felt that I had a foundation from the past, and there was new stuff to learn, so I agreed. China Petroleum and Petrochemicals: Was it difficult to carry out the work at that time? Chen Junwu: At that time I was the team leader, and I invited many professionals to serve as assistants – those in the fields of water resources, power generation, and public works. Each project often involved a dozen or so people. They shared lots of experiences. I learned while applying it, with new ideas constantly coming to mind; I kept learning*, drawing on the strengths of various approaches, and thus created a very good review team. With a computer, it’s very convenient to look up information from abroad; I can find out about any new technological developments within a couple of days. Currently, we handle the review of all major coal chemical projects. We’ve been doing this for 15 years now, without any interruptions, and the progress has been fairly smooth. The new coal chemical industry is just in its infancy. China’s petroleum and petrochemical sector: Low international oil prices are likely to persist for some time; with coal chemistry facing challenges in China at present, does China’s energy strategy need to be adjusted? Chen Junwu: Internationally, there are very few countries like China that still rely on coal as their main source of energy. Many countries such as Germany no longer use coal at all; instead, energy sources like oil and natural gas play a dominant role. In addition, there’s wind energy, solar energy, and nuclear energy. Of course, nuclear energy remains somewhat controversial at present. In the past, the United States also relied heavily on coal for power generation. Now, due to the abundance of natural gas, coal is gradually being phased out and replaced. But China does not have that much natural gas, and although there is renewable energy for power generation, it can only replace 20% or 30% of it. Therefore, China will rely mainly on coal, especially for power generation, for at least another 100 years; it could even be 200 years. China’s oil and petrochemical industry: Burning coal causes many problems. Currently, foggy weather is occurring across the country, and many attribute this to coal burning; of course, vehicle exhaust emissions also play a role. How to solve the problems caused by burning coal? Chen Junwu: Burning coal does indeed pose many problems, but our natural endowment of abundant coal and scarce oil means that it is inevitable for us to use coal for energy. In fact, coal-based power generation is feasible, but it requires desulfurization, denitrification, recovery of emitted carbon dioxide, and pollution control. Clean combustion of coal has been a topic of study abroad for a long time. China’s petroleum and petrochemical industry: Is coal chemical engineering an important means for cleaning up coal? Chen Junwu: China consumes a large amount of coal, with 90% of it being used for direct combustion ； The usage in coal chemical industry is very small, only one-tenth. Coal chemical industry is further divided into traditional coal chemical industry and new-type coal chemical industry. Traditional coal chemical industry involves converting coal into fertilizers, and after coal coking, producing calcium carbide and acetylene ； The new type of coal chemical industry involves converting coal into methanol (a one-carbon compound); using methanol as a starting point, it is then used to produce ethylene, a two-carbon compound, and propylene, a three-carbon compound, from which further products can be manufactured. In China, there are already many projects in the traditional coal chemical industry; however, the product quality is poor, profitability is low, and there are also environmental issues. Traditional coal chemical industry is transitioning to a new type of coal chemical industry. New coal chemical industries currently require large investments, operate on a small scale, and some of their processes are not yet mature; the processes that are mature include MTO and MTP. It can be said that the new coal chemical industry is still in its infancy; although there are many proposals, they are all at the experimental stage, with few being widely adopted. China’s oil and petrochemical industry: Where does China’s coal chemical technology stand internationally? Chen Junwu: It was only in the past decade or so that we began to focus on the development of new types of coal chemical industries; before that, it was all about traditional coal chemical processes, or the adoption of some foreign technologies, with no original innovations of our own. However, the new type of coal chemical industry has developed well in China over the past few years. We have conducted a lot of research and built many devices, some of which are quite large in scale. China has made great progress in this area; such things don’t exist abroad, as they mostly use natural gas there. Natural gas is simple; methane can be easily turned into many things. New coal chemical industries are quite complex; others do not need to conduct much research on them, but we must do so due to our natural endowments. Focus on technical capabilities: China’s petroleum and petrochemical industry – Since coal-based chemical manufacturing is an important direction for energy substitution in our country, why are there strict restrictions on the establishment of such projects at present? Chen Junwu: Chinese people* are accustomed to blind competition. Now that there is an excess of coal, **development must be restricted and production capacity reduced. It’s a pity that some coal owners and coal companies have closed their mines; they are looking for a way to utilize coal. Upon hearing about coal chemical industry, it seems that by converting coal into raw materials for such industries, the production capacity that needs to be reduced can be avoided, thus addressing the urgent need. Coal owners, as they are only concerned with managing their own coal resources and have no knowledge of the chemical industry market, often choose any coal chemical project they can find; but the market is not that simple. At first, the Chinese market was relatively rudimentary; there weren’t many coal chemical products or even petroleum products available, and as long as something was produced it could be used, with no need for great attention to variety or grade. The market is currently oversupplied; coal chemical products need to be upgraded in quality. Companies must install a range of processing units and environmental protection facilities, and they also need to consider how to upgrade their products, ensuring that they are not just basic polyolefins. The coal owners are powerless and cannot come up with that much money. China’s petroleum and petrochemical industry: At present, most coal chemical products are of ordinary quality, and market competition is rather chaotic. So how should the development of coal chemistry be promoted? Chen Junwu: For now, we need to develop the technology first and build strategic technical reserves, as it won’t be used right away. Now many people believe that once coal chemical technology is available, it can be sold, used to build factories, and widely promoted. This was not our original intention. Take coal-to-liquid technology, for example. Although the costs are currently very high, we must maintain a reserve of this technology. In the event of war, our country’s oil resources will only be able to meet 30% of its own needs, so coal-to-oil conversion will be necessary as a **strategic alternative energy source. China’s petroleum and petrochemical industry: Although coal-based chemical technologies such as coal-to-oil are currently considered reserve technologies, is it possible that one day a breakthrough will be achieved, making them more economical and thus enabling their widespread adoption? Chen Junwu: This isn’t too easy. Although our technology is constantly advancing, the use of coal as a raw material for coal chemical processing on an international scale is **very limited, and research in this field is hardly being carried out anymore. Only China is conducting research on our endowment resources; as a result, the level of competition is low and the costs are high. China National Petroleum and Petrochemical: Does this mean that, due to the lack of competition and no international peers to learn from or draw inspiration from, it’s very difficult for us to improve our coal chemical technologies? Chen Junwu: It’s not entirely for this reason; there’s also the issue of how to do the calculations. Coal chemical processing generally involves converting solids into gases and then into liquids; solids cannot be converted directly into liquids. Direct coal-to-oil conversion is fashionable, but it is very difficult. Many countries have been working on it for years without much success. In China, the representative company that excels in direct liquefaction of coal to oil is Shenhua Group. On December 31, 2008, the first million-ton production line of Shenhua Group’s Ordos coal direct liquefaction demonstration project completed the entire production process, successfully yielding qualified diesel and naphtha. This made China the world’s first country to master the key technologies for million-ton-scale coal direct liquefaction. Shenhua Group initially planned to build 3 production lines with an annual capacity of 3 million tons. After evaluation, the investment required for the first production line (with an annual output of 1 million tons of petroleum products) exceeded 10 billion yuan, which is far more than the investment needed for an oil refinery. At that time, the capacity of our country’s oil refineries was just a few million tons per year. When I was approving the Shenhua coal-to-oil project back then, I said, ‘Such a large scale is a waste of **resources, as the risks are very high.’ In the case of petroleum catalytic cracking, we also started at 600,000, 1.2 million, then rose to 2 million and 3 million; by reducing it further, it can drop to several hundred thousand or even tens of thousands. This amplification is a process. Now they have built a production line, achieving an annual production capacity of 1 million tons; they have mastered the technology, and the operation is going well. Of course, the cost is still high, so it’s not possible to promote it on a large scale.