On July 20th, 2022, China Methanol Industry Conference was held in Jinan, Quancheng. Gu Zongqin, Chairman of China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, Zhang Jincheng, Chairman of Shandong Fertilizer and Coal Chemical Industry Association, Zhang Jinqiao, Deputy General Manager of Jinneng Holding Equipment Manufacturing Group, Sun Zhitian, President of Mingquan Group Co., Ltd. and other leaders attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Wang Liqing, Secretary General of China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association.
Gu Zongqin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, gave a keynote speech entitled "Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction, Market Development, and New Breakthrough in the Development of Methanol Industry". Gu Zongqin pointed out that at present, the world economic growth continues to slow down and the international economic structure is deeply adjusted. The Sino-US economic and trade friction, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the global spread and long-term situation of the COVID-19 epidemic have brought great uncertainty to the world economy and politics, and the international environment and policy trend have become more confusing, which has brought extensive and severe impacts on China's economic development. In the next step, China's methanol industry should closely follow the national policy requirements, base itself on the actual situation of the industry, grasp the existing advantages, and do a solid job in five aspects.
First, rationally control the industrial scale.
Gu Zongqin believes that scientific planning, optimization of layout and reasonable control of production capacity are the inevitable requirements to achieve high-quality development of the industry. Since last year, the vast majority of products in the domestic and foreign chemical markets have shown a rare good situation in history, and their prices and benefits have reached the highest in history. However, the methanol market is still tepid, and the market price is always unsatisfactory. Even the commercial liquid ammonia products commonly known as "twin brothers" have a price about 1000 yuan/ton higher than methanol, which is a very unreasonable and abnormal phenomenon. Why did this happen? The fundamental reason is overcapacity and oversupply in the market. If we continue to expand the scale and increase the supply in the future, without strong support from new downstream demand, it will inevitably further intensify the market competition. Therefore, in the planning and construction of methanol project, we should be cautious, restrain impulse, fully and comprehensively consider resources, environment, market and other factors, and avoid blindly following the trend.
The second is to actively implement energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrading.
Gu Zongqin pointed out that it is a national strategy to achieve the goal of "double carbon". For China's methanol industry, we should contribute to this. At present, the most feasible thing is to fully recognize the basic reality that coal is the main raw material in the industry, and make use of advanced production, environmental protection and energy-saving applicable technologies and equipment to carry out energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrading and transformation in a down-to-earth manner. Since last year, the association has done a lot of work to guide the industry to carry out energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformation, specially organizing a symposium on energy-saving and carbon-reduction technological transformation, conducting research on energy-saving and carbon-reduction technological transformation, and submitting the implementation plan of energy-saving and carbon-reduction in synthetic ammonia and methanol industries to the National Development and Reform Commission.
Gu Zongqin believes that the key points for enterprises to carry out energy-saving and carbon-reducing technological transformation are as follows: First, increasing the application of green low-carbon energy in methanol production plants. It is necessary to increase the application of green electric energy in methanol production and gradually reduce the proportion of coal as raw material. It is recommended to modify the corresponding industrial policies to allow the use of natural gas raw materials with low carbon emission to produce methanol in places where resources are concentrated. The second is to carry out research and demonstration of green low-carbon technology and equipment. The dry pulverized coal gasification technology with a pressure of 6.5MPa and above was popularized to improve the gasification efficiency of the unit. It is necessary to demonstrate, optimize and timely popularize the waste boiler or semi-waste boiler process, recover the by-product steam from the waste heat of high-temperature gas, replace the gas cooling technology of the full quench process, and improve the thermal efficiency of coal gasification devices; Third, speed up the popularization and application of mature process equipment, popularize new technologies such as high-efficiency syngas purification, carbon monoxide isothermal shift, high-efficiency methanol synthesis and energy-saving methanol rectification, and speed up the renovation and transformation of existing devices and equipment by using high-efficiency energy-saving equipment such as high-efficiency compressors and transformers and intelligent control systems. In addition, the association will also cooperate with the revision of the national standard of energy consumption per unit product of methanol, and lead the low-carbon development of the industry through the standard.
The third is to focus on developing the downstream market of methanol.
Gu Zongqin stressed that at present, methanol is the basic chemical raw material, and the downstream mainly produces low value-added products. Efforts should be made to change this situation. Conditional enterprises should seize the rare opportunity of new material development, make efforts in the direction of high-end technology and product shortage, and improve the added value and market competitiveness of products. Such as coal-based epoxy resin, high-performance polypropylene, polyethylene film, degradable plastic, etc.
As a new energy product, China has made pioneering progress in many fields, such as stoves, furnaces and vehicles, in methanol fuel for many years. In January this year, the 14th Five-Year Development Plan of Green Transportation issued by the Ministry of Transport included the application of methanol-powered ships as the main task of "promoting the application of new energy and building a low-carbon transportation system". It is expected that in the future, the recognition of methanol as a clean fuel will continue to increase, and the application of methanol fuel will be further expanded. In the future, it is necessary to speed up the improvement of industrial policies, technical standards and market application guarantee system to protect the healthy development of methanol fuel.
Fourth, always insisting that innovation is the first driving force.
Gu Zongqin pointed out that scientific and technological innovation is a powerful engine for high-quality development and a strategic support for building a modern economic system. For the methanol industry with coal as the main raw material, scientific and technological innovation is the only choice to realize the high-end, diversified and low-carbon development of the industry. First of all, it is necessary to speed up the research of core technologies and achieve breakthroughs in key areas and links. For example, the development and application of super-large and energy-saving briquette gasifier, high-efficiency purification, research and development of synthetic catalyst and industrial transformation. Secondly, we should vigorously promote the deep integration of production technology and digital technology. Through operation automation, operation visualization, information digitization, management networking, data integration and intelligent operation and maintenance, the production efficiency and operation management level are continuously improved. Third, we should attach importance to the overall strategic research of disruptive technologies, and enhance our scientific opinions and strategic cognition of disruptive technologies.
In the future, coal chemical industry will break through the bottleneck of source emission reduction, energy saving and efficiency improvement, and take a new path of low-carbon emission in high-carbon industry, which will largely depend on subversive technological innovation. For example, economic and stable green hydrogen production and supply technology, new ways of carbon dioxide resource utilization, etc.
Fifth, firmly build the bottom line of safety and environmental protection.
Gu Zongqin reminded that in recent days, frequent accidents in chemical enterprises have not only caused high economic losses, but also brought gloom to the casualties and their families, enterprises and even the whole industry. In April this year, the State Council Municipal Safety Committee formulated fifteen measures to further strengthen the implementation of safety production responsibility and resolutely prevent and contain serious accidents. All enterprises should be based on fundamentally eliminating hidden dangers and solving problems, implement the fifteen hard measures for safety production, focus on the prevention and control of major safety risks of hazardous chemicals, carry out in-depth self-examination and self-correction of hidden dangers of safety and environmental protection, constantly improve their consciousness and initiative in fulfilling their main responsibilities, make precise policies and take the initiative to attack, check for leaks and make up for vacancies, make all-out efforts, and resolutely fight for the prevention and resolution of major safety and environmental protection risks.
Duan Hengbin, chief engineer of Dalian Ruike Technology Co., Ltd. introduced the popularization and application of Dalian Ruike catalyst at home and abroad and the progress of technological innovation.
