Will the coal chemical industry's production capacity under the "dual carbon" goal promote energy supply?

[ Hot Focus of Chemical Machinery and Equipment Network ] In 2020, based on the need to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind and the realization of sustainable development, China has made a major strategic decision of "striving for carbon peaks by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060"
.
From the perspective of time nodes, the transition period left for China from carbon peak to carbon neutrality (only 30 years) is much shorter than that of developed countries in Europe and America (50-70 years)
.
From the perspective of primary energy consumption structure, China is a large coal production and consumption country, and its energy system is supported by fossil energy, especially high-carbon coal
.
In 2020, coal will account for 56.
8% of China's primary energy consumption
.
It can be seen that realizing the "dual carbon" goal is not only time-critical and heavy-duty, but also the only way to accelerate the transformation of the coal-based energy structure
.

 

1.
Development status of coal chemical industry
 

　　With the development of China's coal chemical industry in recent decades, its energy consumption has been declining, and the level of cleanliness and environmental protection has been continuously improved.
The overall technical level and scale are in a leading position in the world
.
However, since the raw material gas for synthesizing coal-based chemicals needs to undergo water-gas conversion to meet the hydrogen-carbon ratio required for synthesizing methanol or oil, China's coal chemical industry has the characteristics of high water consumption
.
In addition, the break-even point oil prices of coal-to-liquid, coal-to-olefin, and coal-to-ethylene glycol are 70, 45 and 55 US dollars per barrel respectively
.
When the oil price is greater than US$100/barrel, the coal chemical industry has considerable profits.
However, in recent years, low oil prices and high coal prices have led to overall losses in coal-to-liquid, natural gas, ethylene glycol, and acetic acid
.

 

　　Therefore, the economics of coal chemical industry are affected by fluctuations in the international oil price market and are facing great challenges
.
Finally, in the National Two Sessions in 2021, "carbon peak" and "carbon neutral" were included in the government work report for the first time.
"Carbon peak and carbon neutral" has become a long-term, top-level hard constraint on China's economic and social development.
This will continue to force the economic and energy structure to accelerate the transformation.
At the same time, in view of the current situation of China’s crude oil dependence on foreign sources exceeding 70%, it is the current coal chemical industry to develop and support modern coal chemical industry’s capacity/technical reserves and quality and efficiency.
The top priority is of great significance to guaranteeing our country’s energy security supply
.

 

　　2.
Development direction of coal chemical industry
 

　　Most coal chemical processes must directly or indirectly emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide, but there are also individual technologies that have carbon sequestration properties
.
For example, using coal as a raw material to synthesize urea can consume about 735 kg of carbon dioxide per ton of urea
.
According to the "Putting Carbon Dioxide into Use-Creating Value from Emissions" issued by the International Energy Agency, the world's largest carbon dioxide consumption sector is the fertilizer industry, of which 130 million tons of carbon dioxide are used for urea production each year, but its use is less than the global carbon dioxide in 2020 1% of emissions (34 billion tons)
.
In view of the high-carbon (60%-98%) characteristics of coal, how to achieve low-carbon utilization of high-carbon resources is a great test for coal chemical industry practitioners
.

 

　　Professor Liu Zhenyu from Beijing University of Chemical Technology pointed out: 1) If calcium carbide adopts green electricity-based production technology, calcium carbide may become an energy storage carrier and drive the development of chemical synthesis technology based on calcium carbide (made from renewable electricity); 2) With In the future, the demand for fuel will be reduced, and the preparation technology of coal-based chemicals/materials will play an even more important role in the coal chemical industry; 3) The research and development and breakthrough of CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) technology will help coal chemical industry achieve carbon neutrality.
The goal of Hehe is more important; 4) Low-carbon coal chemical process is an important development direction (using renewable electricity and H2)
.

 

　　3.
The future development of coal chemical industry
 

　　Based on the development status of coal chemical industry and the proposal of my country's "dual carbon" goal, we believe that the future development of coal chemical industry should mainly focus on the following aspects:
 

　　First, the coal chemical industry should carry out quantitative accounting of carbon emissions as soon as possible to find out what it is
.
The whole process of coal chemical industry involves many links, the corresponding carbon emission accounting is also more complicated, and the corporate carbon emission data given by different carbon emission accounting agencies are not the same
.
The government should introduce relevant policies to guide relevant departments or third-party verification agencies to establish a strict, scientific, and fair carbon accounting system to achieve standardization of corporate carbon emissions and carbon emission reduction accounting, and to improve the credibility of accounting.
Enterprises subsequently enter the carbon trading market to provide corresponding data support and decision-making basis
.
The government and enterprise levels should establish institutions related to carbon verification and carbon trading, and accelerate the training of relevant talents who are proficient in the carbon accounting system and carbon trading system procedures
.

 

　　Second, coal chemical companies should formulate corresponding carbon peak and carbon neutral technology roadmaps and time nodes based on carbon emission sources and corresponding amounts as soon as possible, combined with existing and future carbon emission reduction and carbon neutral technologies
.
Companies should use the development of carbon emission reduction action plans as an opportunity to accelerate the progress and intensity of related technology research and development, accelerate the introduction, digestion and absorption of related technologies, and realize their transformation, upgrading, and high-quality sustainable development as soon as possible
.

 

　　Third, it is recommended that the government analyze and scientifically formulate corresponding differentiated policies from multiple perspectives based on the characteristics of different coal chemical projects in terms of scale, product categories, and environmental impact
.
Appropriate policy preference should be given to projects that can guarantee China's energy security, and coal chemical projects with high energy consumption and high pollution must be resolutely won
.
For coal chemical technology with significant carbon reduction and economically feasible characteristics, it is necessary to accelerate its promotion and application in the whole industry
.
The government and enterprises should also formulate corresponding policies to stimulate the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of the vast number of coal chemical industry practitioners in the research and development of carbon emission reduction technologies
.

 

　　Fourth, steadily promote the coupling of coal chemical industry with oil/natural gas/biochemical industry, gradually increase the proportion of renewable energy in coal chemical industry energy use, achieve complementary advantages, and reduce the total carbon emission and intensity of coal chemical industry
.

 

　　Fifth, extend the coal chemical industry chain, focus on the research and development and production of special specialty chemicals, increase the high added value of coal chemical products, and retain as much carbon as possible in the end products
.
For example, degradable plastics such as PGA, PBAT, and PBS can be produced through coalification routes; relying on the advantages of coal-based α-olefin raw materials, the development of polyolefin elastomer technology and engineering applications
.
At the same time, breakthroughs will be made in the large-scale utilization technology of carbon dioxide produced by coal chemical industry (such as hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol, etc.
), and its cost will be reduced as much as possible
.

 

　　Sixth, while solving the carbon emission problem of coal chemical industry, we should pay attention to improving the environmental protection level of coal chemical industry, tackling low-cost and high-efficiency three waste treatment technologies in the coal chemical industry process, realizing multi-pollutant co-processing and energy resource reuse, and effectively solving existing problems.
The problem of excessively high environmental protection investment costs exists in enterprises
.

 

　　Author: Associate Professor of Wu Meng Mengtai University of Technology
 

　　Wang Jiancheng, Professor of Taiyuan University of Technology
 

　　Original title: Under the "dual carbon" target development, the coal chemical production capacity will promote energy supply?