Analysis of the market status and development trend of China's coal chemical industry in 2022 shows that modern coal chemical industry has become mature

I. Overview of coal chemical industry

1. Classification

Coal chemical industry is a process in which coal is converted into gas, liquid, solid fuel and chemicals through chemical processing. Coal coking refers to the production of coke by high temperature distillation of coal, by-products such as coal tar, crude benzene and coke oven gas, and by-products can be deeply processed, among which coke is the key to connect upstream coal and downstream coal chemical products.

2. Development history

The development of coal chemical industry began in the second half of the 18th century, and a complete coal chemical industry system was formed in the 19th century. In the 20th century, many organic chemicals were mostly produced with coal as raw materials, and coal chemical industry became an important part of the chemical industry.

Second, coal chemical industry policy

In April 2022, six ministries, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan". Main contents: Promote the high-end, diversified and low-carbon development of coal chemical industry, and steadily and orderly develop modern coal chemical industry in accordance with the requirements of ecological priority, water production, total volume control and agglomeration development. We will promote the transformation and upgrading of modern coal chemical industry demonstration zones, steadily promote the construction of strategic coal-to-oil and gas bases, and promote the coupling demonstration of refining, coal chemical industry and "green electricity" and "green hydrogen" industries.

Third, coal chemical industry chain

Coal chemical industry produces different coal chemical products according to different production processes. Coal coking is the earliest application of industry, coal coking can produce coke, coal tar, coke oven gas, etc., can be used in iron and non-ferrous metal smelting, city gas, fuel oil and so on. The downstream coal chemical industry is mainly used in automobiles, smelting, agriculture, plastics, manufacturing and so on.

In 2021, the global coal production will be 8.173 million tons, and China is the world's largest coal producer, accounting for more than half of the global coal production. As of January to August 2022, China's raw coal production of 2.93 billion tons, an increase of 12.79%.

Iv. Analysis of the development status of China's coal chemical industry

1. Market size

Coal chemical industry began in the first industrial revolution, with the rise of petrochemical industry, coal chemical development slowed down. However, in recent years, oil supply is tight, oil prices continue to rise, coal chemical industry has once again been paid attention to. According to statistics, the market size of coal chemical industry in 2021 is 4.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.38%.

2. Production status

From the perspective of the production of China's coal chemical industry main products, China's coal to methanol production in 2021 77.41 million tons, an increase of 7.33%, as of the first half of 2022, China's coal to gas production of 3.2 billion cubic meters, an increase of 42.9%, coal to oil production of 3.572 million tons, an increase of 11.8%.

3. Sales volume

In terms of sales volume, according to statistics, in the first half of 2022 China's coal to oil sales of 3.56 million tons, an increase of 16.7%, coal to natural gas sales of 3.17 billion cubic meters, an increase of 47.4%, coal to olefin sales of 6.066 million tons, an increase of 1.4%, coal to ethylene glycol sales of 2.05 million tons, an increase of 34.7%.

4. Product area layout

The plant production capacity of coal-to-olefin in northwest China, East China, North China, Central China and eastern China accounts for 68%, 20%, 10%, 1% and 1% of the country's total production capacity, respectively, reflecting the important distribution characteristics of coal-to-olefin, that is, most of the plants are located in northwest China and a small part of the eastern coastal areas. Coal-to-aromatics projects are more concentrated in northwest China. Coal-to-ethylene glycol operation projects are mainly concentrated in Henan, Xinjiang and other provinces and regions, and some capacity under construction is concentrated in Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Shandong and other places.

5, chemical coal consumption

Under the constraints of the "dual carbon" goal, coal must be developed to clean and efficient use, and low-carbon use of high-carbon energy, not only to ensure energy security, but also to fulfill the "dual carbon" commitment. In recent years, China's chemical coal consumption has shown an overall growth trend, as of 2021, China's chemical coal consumption of 220.53 million tons, the future clean and efficient use of coal will be the long-term development direction of the industry.

6. Carbon emissions of coal chemical industry

From the perspective of carbon emissions per unit of coal converted, the CO2 emission value of coal chemical process ranges from 2.1t/tce to 2.5t/tce. In coal-fired power generation, all carbon except ash and residue carbon is converted into CO2. According to the carbon content of standard coal of 0.855t per ton and ash and residue carbon rate of 2%, theoretically the carbon emission value of converted unit coal is 3.1t/tce, so the carbon emission of coal to methanol is about 30% less than that of direct coal combustion.