Academician Liu Zhongmin of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: Modern coal chemical industry is in a breakthrough period

Since late August, Dalian Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has ushered in a series of academic exchange activities. The second clean energy high-end forum, coal/methanol-to-olefin industry high-end forum, and clean energy intellectual property alliance annual meeting have been held in the institute. New trends in the development of the energy and chemical industry. During the event, Liu Zhongmin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Dahua Institute, put forward his own views on modern coal chemical industry.He believes that modern coal chemical industry is in a breakthrough period and will usher in a new round of technological development.

As the director of the MTO National Engineering Laboratory, Academician Liu Zhongmin led the team to complete the world’s first industrial test and first industrialization of methanol-to-olefin technology, and later led the research and development of a new generation of methanol-to-olefin technology. He is a witness to the rapid development of modern coal chemical industry . In the opinion of Academician Liu Zhongmin, the modern coal chemical industry, which was initially demonstrated during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period and expanded its demonstration scale during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", is now entering a breakthrough period. For example, Bao Xin and academician led the team to study the direct coupling reaction of carbon monoxide and methanol. The production of aromatics is a "Holy Grail" research topic in the field of chemistry. It can be expected that the modern coal chemical industry will usher in a new round of technological development during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

A set of coal chemical data recently released by the China Petrochemical Federation shows: China’s annual coal-to-oil production capacity is 9.6 million tons; coal-to-olefins annual production capacity is close to 10 million tons; coal-to-glycol production capacity is 6.8 million tons; Both the route direct hydroliquefaction and the indirect syngas liquefaction have achieved high-load operation.

"These technologies have been developed from scratch in our country and have completed industrial demonstrations and large-scale production. my country's coal chemical technology can be said to be'partially leading, with great development space'." Academician Liu Zhongmin said.

"At present, a single product of coal chemical industry can form an output value of hundreds of billions of yuan, coal-to-liquid can reach hundreds of billions, coal-to-olefins 120 billion, coal-to-ethylene glycol 100 billions, and coal-to-ethanol. Three hundred billion yuan is no problem, these add up to one trillion yuan, and the development potential of the modern coal chemical industry is huge.” Academician Liu Zhongmin said.

Academician Liu Zhongmin believes that the biggest problem facing China's coal chemical industry is clean utilization.

The higher the hydrogen content in the raw material, the lower the carbon dioxide emissions. Among fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, natural gas contains the highest hydrogen content, and coal contains the least hydrogen, so it is the most difficult to clean coal. China is facing tremendous pressure on environmental protection and has signed the "Paris Agreement" internationally. How to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and maintain a balance between industrial development, emission reduction and the environment needs to be considered in the international context.

“Of course, we cannot discuss coal chemical industry in terms of coal chemical industry. At the strategic level, the country has long been deployed in the field of coal chemical industry. The two platforms of energy and hydrogen realize the integration of fossil energy, renewable energy and clean energy." said Academician Liu Zhongmin. "The development of my country's coal chemical industry has been advancing amidst controversies. The advanced nature of technology must ultimately be calculated in economic accounts and can withstand market tests. Doing unique things based on national conditions will eventually meet national needs and solve major problems." Academician Liu Zhongmin said.

Regarding coal-to-liquid specifically, Academician Liu Zhongmin believes that as a national strategic reserve technology, coal-to-liquid has played its due role at a critical moment, but coal-to-liquid has not received support from national policy subsidies or tax exemptions in the development process. Companies that invest in coal-to-liquid oil now have a staggering amount of capital and can only balance this expenditure with other businesses. This is not conducive to the entry of social capital to drive the industry to accelerate breakthrough innovation. Therefore, Academician Liu Zhongmin hopes that the state will guide social capital into the real economy from a policy perspective.

This article is transferred from China Chemical Industry News

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