Development conditions and background of coal chemical industry

1. Prospects of coal chemical industry

Throughout the history of the development of the chemical industry in the past hundred years, every change in the structure of raw materials is always accompanied by great changes in the chemical industry. In 1984, the world's proven recoverable reserves of fossil fuels, coal accounted for about 74%, while oil about 12%, natural gas about 10%, from the perspective of resources, coal will be a potential chemical main raw material. In which fields and at what speed coal chemical industry will develop in the future, it will depend on the technological progress of coal chemical industry itself and the changes in oil supply and demand and prices. In the near future, coke used in metallurgical industry such as iron and steel will still rely on coal coking, and coking chemicals such as naphthalene, anthracene and other polycyclic compounds are still difficult to replace organic chemical raw materials in petrochemical industry; With the development and application of new gasification technology, coal gasification will still be an important aspect of coal chemical industry. In recent years, the development and research of gasification coal into syngas and synthesis of a series of organic chemical products through carbon-chemistry have been rapidly developed and attracted much attention. The preparation of liquid fuel from coal, whether by low temperature distillation, direct liquefaction or indirect liquefaction, has to depend on the evaluation of technology and economy.

2. Conditions for development

Abundant, cheap coal

First, China's energy endowment is characterized by "lack of oil, less gas, relatively rich coal resources"; Second, coal is relatively cheap. There are many places where coal resources are abundant but not rich, such as wide distribution of resources, more small mines, less large mines, and more Jiwo mines. This will lead to an unstable supply of coal; It is not stable in composition. Chemical production is a long period of stable operation, the quantity and quality of raw materials is not stable, chemical production can not be normal operation. Generally speaking, a decent coal chemical project, to consume millions of tons of coal a year, to maintain the operation of coal chemical enterprises for decades, taking into account the mining rate and other issues, without billions of tons of reserves is difficult to meet the requirements of coal chemical industry. If the local coal reserves are not large, the composition is unstable, or the ash powder is too high, and the calorific value is not high, then it is not necessary to engage in coal chemical industry, or use these coal as fuel.

Coal price is another important factor in the development of coal chemical industry. The high price of coal makes the coal chemical enterprises have no competitive power. Compared with petrochemical industry and natural gas chemical industry, coal chemical industry has large investment per unit product and high financial cost. The price of coal is too high, the unit product cost is inevitably high, reflecting the advantages of coal chemical industry. In 2004, the arrival coal price of a coal chemical company in the United States was $20 /bbl. In the work encountered a lot of coal chemical projects, some raw coal prices are very cheap, below 100 yuan /t, project benefits are very good, such as northern Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places; While some places have coal resources, but the coal price is very high, some bituminous coal even reached 400 yuan /t or more, some Shanxi anthracite lump coal factory price reached 700 yuan /t or even higher, the project competitiveness is very weak.

Ample water

Large water consumption is a major feature of coal chemical industry. Many places are rich in coal but short of water. This is the case in much of northern and coastal China. There are many coal chemical enterprises are troubled by water shortage, often appear coal chemical enterprises and agriculture or other industrial water competition phenomenon. To maintain the normal operation of coal chemical enterprises, it is necessary to ensure the supply of thousands of tons of fresh water per hour. For a truly large-scale coal chemical enterprise, 2000-3000t/h water consumption is also necessary.

At the same time, coal chemical enterprises are more sensitive to water price. Water prices vary widely across the country, generally in the south near the river water prices are cheap, fresh water prices 0.2-0.3 yuan /t, water resources fees 0.02-0.03 yuan /t, water prices in most areas in 0.4-0.5 yuan /t. However, some places have to transfer water from far away, and some industrial parks have high water prices, reaching 1.5 yuan /t, which is difficult for enterprises to bear. Individual coastal water shortage areas, the use of seawater desalination, water prices at least 5 yuan /t, if the coal chemical enterprises can not afford.

3. Convenient transportation

Coal chemical industry products and raw materials transport volume is large, transportation is very important, it is best near the railway or water transport convenient place. Compared with railway, water transport and automobile transport, first, railway and water transport can easily meet the requirements in terms of quantity, and the number is large, and the automobile transport is very troublesome to organize; Second, the price of railway and water transport is much lower than that of automobile transport. At present, the railway freight rate is generally 0.15 yuan/(t·km) (referring to the national railway), the water transport price is 0.10 yuan/(t·km), and the automobile transport price is 0.32 yuan/(t·km), the difference is very large; Third, the loss of motor transport is large. Of course, the coal chemical industry sits on the coal field and relies on belt transportation, which can greatly reduce the transportation of raw coal. But the product has to be shipped out, and it's better to have a railroad. The same is true of foreign experience. At present, there are many small coal chemical enterprises in China that do not rely on railway transportation, and their development is limited.

4. There is a certain environmental capacity

China is rich in coal resources, but generally speaking, coal contains high sulfur, and the development and utilization of environmental protection requirements are high. In 2003, China's SO2 emission and CO2 emission accounted for the first and second place respectively in the world, of which 90% of SO2 emission came from the use of coal.

The discharge of coal chemical enterprises is inevitable, even if the discharge standard is reached after treatment, there are always three wastes to be discharged. This is an unavoidable problem. The sulfur content of coal in southern China is high, and the environmental capacity of many places has been saturated or exceeded, especially in mountainous areas, exhaust gas diffusion is difficult, and acid rain is serious in many places, and there is no margin for further development of coal chemical industry, and the project is difficult to pass the approval of environmental protection departments.

Coal chemical alternative fuel products can be divided into three categories: oxygenated fuel (alcohol/ether/ester), synthetic oil (coal to oil), gas fuel (methane gas/syngas/hydrogen). Among them, oxygen-containing fuel technology is mature, which should be popularized and applied in the near future. Synthetic oil is fully compatible with existing vehicle technology systems and infrastructure, but its technology has yet to be perfected and will play an important role in 2020. Gas-fueled vehicles have many advantages, and our country will break through one by one from basic scientific research, frontier technological innovation, and engineering application development.