Newao Group’s Key Laboratory for Coal-Based Low-Carbon Energy: Private enterprises seeking breakthroughs in coal-to-natural gas technology

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New Energy Group’s Key Laboratory for Coal-Based Low-Carbon Energy: Private Enterprises Seeking Breakthroughs in Coal-to-Natural Gas Technology. Author/Source: Date: 2016-12-29. Clicks: 14. Among the institutions that serve as hosts for these key laboratories, many of which are located in universities, there are also some outstanding private enterprises involved. SNOW Group is one of them. It is understood that the company’s **Key Laboratory for Coal-Based Low-Carbon Energy** (hereinafter referred to as the “SNOW Energy Laboratory”) became one of the second batch of enterprise **key laboratories approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology in January 2010**, and was officially granted its certification in May of the following year. This laboratory focuses on the research and development of coal-to-gas technology. According to Zhu Zhenqi, director of the XinAo Laboratory, China has abundant coal reserves, with coal accounting for over 60% of consumption, but this has led to serious environmental and ecological problems such as air pollution and the greenhouse effect. Considering factors such as resource endowments, path dependence, and energy security, the clean utilization of coal becomes an inevitable choice. Natural gas, being relatively clean, is undoubtedly better suited to societal needs. “As a R&D platform with enterprises as the main drivers of innovation, laboratories focus on the research and development of technologies for modern energy systems as well as their application demonstration; they place greater emphasis on solving practical industry problems and their socioeconomic value compared to research institutions. For it, research and development is not an end in itself, but rather a means to discover and foster new industries. ”He said. The industrial sector faces difficulties. In promoting energy transition and combating air pollution, natural gas is regarded as playing an important role, with its consumption share expected to reach 10% by 2020. However, in our country, the development of natural gas faces numerous obstacles, and there are still some institutional uncertainties regarding its demand. The \"China Energy Outlook 2030\" released this year by the China Energy Research Society indicates that there are three key uncertainties facing the development of natural gas, including structural changes in economic growth and a weakening demand in the market ； External dependence is rising rapidly, and price advantages are significantly weakening ； The development of storage and transportation facilities lags behind, and pipeline network construction is constrained by institutional factors. Nevertheless, SNOW Group, which began its operations in the urban pipeline gas sector, continues to focus on developing coal-to-gas technology. The company has been working on the clean and efficient utilization of coal since 2006, which is now ten years ago. However, the development of the coal-to-gas industry faces many challenges. One of them is that in June 2010, the **Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on matters related to regulating the development of the coal-to-gas industry, transferring the approval authority for coal-to-gas projects to the **level. Last July, the **Energy Bureau issued the ‘Guiding Opinions on Regulating Demonstration Projects for Coal-based Fuels’ (second draft for public comment), calling for ‘acting in accordance with available resources, adhering to the strictest environmental protection standards, pursuing energy efficiency, ensuring a scientific approach to planning, and fostering independent innovation’. Behind this, domestic coal-to-gas projects face issues such as production fluctuations, low efficiency, environmental pollution, and high water consumption, which have become the focus of controversy. Although basic research on coal-to-gas conversion started earlier abroad, it has still not been industrialized. In response to this, Li Kezhong, General Manager of the Gasification Technology Center at SNOW Energy Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “SNOW Energy Technology”), said that SNOW Energy is developing new types of gasification technologies in order to address the various problems arising from traditional gasification methods. Taking the Lurgi furnace technology as an example, it was not developed initially for the production of natural gas; natural gas is merely one of its products. These technical characteristics determine that this technology is backward in natural gas production. In principle, the thermal efficiency of the Lurgi furnace is about 60%, while that of gasification can reach 72%, and that of hydrogenation gasification can reach 79.6%. Wang Yusuo, chairman of the board of Newao Group, has also said that the current mainstream coal gasification technologies were originally developed with the aim of producing chemical products such as synthetic ammonia and coal-derived methanol, and efforts are made to minimize the generation of methane gas during the gasification process. After being used to produce energy, such as gas from coal, and despite various \"tests\" that have improved the technology over time, its fundamental characteristics of low energy conversion efficiency and high resource consumption cannot be fundamentally changed. These mainstream gasification technologies are all techniques developed abroad in the early days; at that time, environmental issues were not a major concern, so environmental protection requirements were not given much consideration during their development. As environmental pressures become increasingly evident, the inherent shortcomings of these older technologies gradually come to light. Li Kezhong believes that **coal-to-natural gas is not encouraged because there are no good technologies available. Once a good technical demonstration is successful and meets the requirements regarding energy conversion efficiency, environmental protection, and economic feasibility, **support will be provided. A breakthrough has been achieved in coal hydrogenation gasification projects. Taking into account the characteristics of domestic coal, as well as factors such as storage volumes, location, water resources, and climate conditions, SNOW’s laboratory selected four gasification technologies to address the gasification challenges associated with ordinary coal by using hydrogenation ； Utilizing lignite with catalytic gasification technology ； Supercritical gasification to address coal with high moisture content ； Underground gasification converts coal that cannot be mined technically directly into syngas for use. Zhu Zhenqi explained, “With these technological breakthroughs, it can be said that they cover almost all coal types and regions in our country.” ” Li Kezhong said that these technologies are designed specifically for the production of methane, with a very clear target product; aromatic compounds and other by-products are generated as a side effect during the production process. Taking hydrogen gasification as an example, since its initiation in March 2012, key advancements were achieved within three years, including basic laboratory research, pilot-scale tests, and pilot plant tests with a capacity of 10 tons per day. Recently, SNOWTECH also announced that significant progress has been made in the coal hydrogenation gasification project, which is part of the **\"863\" Program’s research initiative on key technologies for new processes in coal-to-natural gas conversion carried out in its laboratories; the pilot plant with a capacity of 50 tons per day has passed the acceptance tests. Meanwhile, according to Zhu Zhenqi, the laboratory focuses on coal gasification as its core, pursuing a technological upgrade path that moves from energy to chemical raw materials and then to high-performance carbon materials. At the same time, it utilizes microalgae to carry out industrial carbon sequestration efforts as well as explore the recovery and reuse of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. It has also developed cost-effective integrated production technologies for microalgae-based energy and various by-products, thereby creating a comprehensive solution for low-carbon resource utilization. In Zhu Zhenqi’s view, this reflects the different focuses between corporate laboratories and research institutions. “We focus not only on the principles but also on feasibility, as well as issues such as engineering implementation, cost, water consumption, and emissions, in order to introduce this technology into society in a comprehensive manner. ” It is reported that since its approval, the laboratory has received a total of 650 million yuan in research funding from the group. In 2015, over 100 million yuan was invested in the laboratory, accounting for 3.5% of the sales revenue.