As the main direction of high-end and differentiated development of modern coal chemical industry, coal-based oxygen compounds with many varieties of products, rich downstream products and diverse production technologies are highly expected. In recent years, China has made a series of innovations and breakthroughs in the development of new fields of coal-based oxygen-containing chemicals, and the momentum of technology development is rapid and the situation is hot. At the 2018 Coal-based Oxygenated Chemicals Development Forum held in Sanmenxia City on December 27, 2018, Zhou Zhuye, vice chairman of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, introduced the technical progress and research and development trends of coal-based oxygenated chemicals.

Coal to ethylene glycol: technology matures

Ethylene glycol is a bulk basic chemical raw material with market capacity second only to ethylene and propylene, and there is a large gap in the domestic market. Since the first coal-to-ethylene glycol project-Tongliao Gold Coal Project was put into operation in 2009, the production capacity has increased steadily. In 2017, the coal-to-ethylene glycol production capacity accounted for 31.87 of the national ethylene glycol production capacity.

With the rapid growth of production capacity, coal-to-ethylene glycol technology is also becoming more and more mature. More than 10 domestic units have carried out research and development of coal-to-ethylene glycol technology, and a number of scientific research results have emerged. Among them, the technology developers who master the core technology of industrialization include Fujian Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sinopec, Shanghai Pujing Chemical, Hubei Huashuo and other units, Inner Mongolia Tongliao Gold Coal, Henan Anyang Yongjin, Yangmei Shouyang, Xinhang Energy and other enterprises The production equipment has basically achieved safe, stable, long-term, full-load operation. At present, the coal-to-ethylene glycol process technology is developing in the direction of large-scale equipment, low production consumption, low emissions and high efficiency; at the same time, the product quality is also constantly optimized, and the acceptance of coal-to-ethylene glycol by downstream users is further improved; coal-based ethylene glycol has begun to be used in the polyester chemical fiber industry on a large scale.

Coal to Ethanol: Developing Multiple Routes

The production cost of coal-to-ethanol is significantly lower than that of bio-ethanol, which has strong competitiveness and broad development prospects. Under the favorable policy of promoting ethanol gasoline in the country, coal-based ethanol has become an attractive technology development direction.

At present, there are three main coal-to-ethanol process routes that are being industrialized and tested in China.

Dalian Institute of Chemical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yanchang Petroleum Group jointly developed a complete set of synthesis gas to ethanol process technology. The technology uses coal-based synthesis gas as raw material to synthesize ethanol through methanol and dimethyl ether carbonylation and hydrogenation. Yanchang Petroleum has built the world's first industrial demonstration project of 100000 tons/year synthesis gas to ethanol using this technology. Dalian Institute of Chemical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiangsu Sopo Group jointly developed acetic acid hydrogenation to ethanol technology, the high-efficiency acetic acid hydrogenation technology and low-energy molecular sieve membrane dehydration technology are organically integrated. In April 2016, a 30000-ton/year acetic acid hydrogenation-to-ethanol industrial demonstration plant was built in Jiangsu Sopo Group and successfully started at one time. In cooperation with Shanxi Lu'an Group, Jupeng Biology adopts the patented fermentation technology of Jupeng Biology to synthesize industrial tail gas into fuel ethanol efficiently, selectively and rapidly through microbial bacteria, the 20000-ton/year syngas biofermentation ethanol demonstration project using this technology will be completed and put into operation this year.

MMA/Butyl Butyrate: Driving Product Differentiation

Methyl methacrylate (MMA) is an indispensable monomer for the production of aerospace glass, optical fiber and other major national strategic materials. At present, more than 50% of MMA needs to be imported in China. The gap is huge, which seriously restricts the development of related industries.

The Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Henan Energy and Chemical Group have jointly developed the technology of preparing MMA from ethylene-synthesis gas, and have built a thousand-ton industrial test device, successfully breaking the foreign monopoly on the production of MMA from ethylene-synthesis gas.

Tianjin Bohai Chemical Yongli Chemical Co., Ltd. and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly developed a one-step catalytic conversion technology for butyl butyrate. The reaction route is simple, the raw material cost and energy consumption are low, no by-products such as water are generated, and the atom economy is high. It is expected to replace the traditional butyl butyrate production process with high energy consumption and heavy pollution. At present, a 100-ton/year pilot plant has been built.

The development of these new technologies will provide more technical routes for the development of modern coal chemical downstream products.