Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies for Technological Progress in China's Petrochemical Industry Development

Communications Contacts Opportunities, Challenges and Technological Progress Strategies for the Development of China's Petrochemical Industry Dai Houliang China Petrochemical Corporation, Beijing 100728, China Abstract: The basic conditions and development trends of the world energy and chemical industry are described, and the development of China's petrochemical industry is analyzed. New opportunities and new challenges. It is pointed out that China's petrochemical industry should adopt technological innovation to continuously improve the quality of inferior oil processing and improve the quality of oil products; develop high-end chemical business and enhance competitiveness; give full play to the advantages of technology and industry, actively develop coal chemical industry, and promote resource diversification; Advantages to coordinate the effective use of various resources.

In the twelfth five-year period and in the near future, China's petrochemical industry will face both the slow recovery of the world economy and the good development opportunities brought about by the steady and steady growth of the domestic economy. It will also face the all-round challenges brought about by the profound changes in the global energy landscape. Therefore, the 12th Five-Year Plan period is not only a period of strategic opportunities for China's petrochemical industry to accelerate its development and reach a new level, it will also be a crucial period for accelerating the transformation of development methods, improving the quality of development, and achieving a qualitative leap. The domestic petrochemical industry needs to fully grasp the opportunities, meet challenges, use domestic and foreign resources and markets, rely on scientific and technological innovation, accelerate the implementation of structural adjustment, industrial upgrading, strengthen energy conservation and environmental protection and resource utilization, speed up the transformation of development methods, and build high technology content and low resource consumption. The petrochemical industry is a modern petrochemical industry with good economic returns and coordinated development with the environment.

Opportunities and challenges faced by the petrochemical industry 1.1 The new wave of industrialization is irreversible, and the world economic landscape will undergo major changes. In the next 20 years, the world’s population will increase by 1.4 billion and GDP will increase by 100%. Non-economic cooperation and development organizations OECD economies The total will exceed OECD countries. More global population and greater economic aggregate mean higher energy production and consumption. In the next 20 years, nearly 4 billion people, including BRICS, will fully commit themselves to industrialization. Non-OECD countries will account for 65% of global energy consumption[1]. Traditionally, they are destructive to resources, energy and the environment. The development model will be difficult to sustain and urgently need to develop new resources, innovate development models, and create new production and lifestyles. China will be a strategic opportunity period for economic development in the next 20 years. Sustained growth in energy demand, improvement of energy efficiency, adjustment of energy structure, and development of low-carbon fuels will become key issues that affect success.

1.2 The traditional energy development model is difficult to sustain, and the world energy consumption pattern will undergo profound changes. Currently, the world’s energy structure is dominated by fossil energy, and oil still maintains its first position, forming oil, coal and gas in the world, supplemented by nuclear power and The basic pattern of hydropower In 2010, the global energy consumption was 12 Gt oil equivalent[3], and the proportions of oil, coal, and natural gas consumption were 33.6%, 29.6%, and 23.8%, respectively. New energy sources such as hydropower, nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy, biomass, etc. Gradually for human attention, a total of 13% in 2010. It is estimated that by 2030, the proportion of petroleum will decline by about 5%, coal will drop by 2%, natural gas will increase by 3%, and the proportion of non-fossil energy such as hydropower, nuclear energy, wind power, and biofuels will increase by about 4 percentage points, gradually forming oil. , coal, gas, new energy four worlds.

1.3 The difficulty of securing resources securely, economically, and steadily In the past, the world's energy consumption was completely dominated by developed countries, and developed countries took a major share of high-quality energy consumption. At present, Asia has replaced Europe and North America, becoming the largest and fastest growing region in the world's three major energy consumption regions. China has become an important factor that cannot be ignored in the world energy market. The rapid development of the local oil and petrochemical industry in Middle East oil-producing countries has also affected the market resources to some extent. Affected by factors such as resources and geopolitical conditions, the balance between oil supply and demand in the world is very fragile. Large-scale use of high-quality fossil fuels by developing countries will face adverse conditions such as further tightening of market resources and soaring international energy prices, and no cheap energy has been used. Opportunity. In addition, since the second half of the 20th century, fighting in the Middle East with rich oil and gas resources has continued, especially since the September 11th Incident. Asymmetric conflicts have expanded. The Iraq war, the Afghan war, and the Libyan war have continued one after another. Oil supplies on the African continent The turmoil in the land is also one after another. The safe and stable supply of oil has been greatly affected, and domestic petrochemical companies are also faced with increasingly greater challenges in implementing the strategy of going abroad.

1.4 The rapid development of oil substitute industries at home and abroad continues to impact the traditional oil industry. The international oil price reached the highest level of US$147 bbl in July 2008, and remained at a high level. The arrival of the era of high oil prices, combined with the prediction of the global total resources, is not optimistic. Promoted the development of alternative energy sources. After breakthroughs in the development of shale gas technology in the United States, the impact on the traditional natural gas market and the production of ethylene with naphtha as raw material has been greatly impacted, and it has also affected the price and consumption of crude oil to some extent. Countries with rich shale gas resources, such as Argentina, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Algeria, and Brazil, are actively preparing for large-scale development. The rapid development of the domestic coal chemical industry, the production of coal-to-olefin MTO and MTP demonstration units have been successfully put into production, and the coal-to-ethylene glycol has also been built into industrial demonstration plants. The coal-to-natural gas industry is developing rapidly, and the capacity of the new coal chemical industry under construction or planning is very high. The considerable, planned and planned ethylene production capacity reached over 20 Mta, although it could not be completed, it will still have a significant impact on the future market of ethylene and its downstream derivatives. Domestic biofuels and biochemical technology research and development and industrial development have received more and more attention. Biodiesel and fuel ethanol have been used for industrial applications. The bio-jet fuel and cellulose-based ethanol technology have been successfully developed. The bio-algae technology and bio-butanol technology are continuously applied. There are new breakthrough reports, and biochemical technologies such as 1,3-propanediol, long-chain dibasic acids, lactic acid, and polylactic acid have also been reported in industrialization.

1.5 Energy Saving and Emission Reduction, Green and Low Carbon, and Coping with Global Warming, and More and More Limitations on the Development and Use of Fossil Energy Previously extensive energy extraction methods have caused serious environmental pollution and ecological damage, and people are producing While using energy, it caused a certain degree of pollution. In the future, China will become the world’s largest source of carbon emissions and will face tremendous pressure in the international community.

The type of air pollution in China has changed from soot-type to coal-to-motor vehicle exhaust-type pollution. Fine particulates and organic pollution in the air have increased. The petroleum and petrochemical industry is both an energy production industry and a major energy consumer. With the increasingly tense energy supply, environmental protection calls have become increasingly loud, environmental protection regulations have become increasingly stringent, and emission requirements have become higher and higher. The development of the traditional petrochemical industry is limited. Changes in the environment will affect the entire development process of the petrochemical industry, especially carbon emission reduction issues. The control and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions depends mainly on changes in the energy sector. Energy saving and improving energy efficiency are the most important emission reduction measures. Developing renewable energy sources is also an important approach. The development of low-carbon consumption and low-carbon energy technologies will inevitably become a global development direction.

1.6 The deep integration of informatization and industrialization will have a profound impact on the production methods and lifestyle. The 17th CPC National Congress report proposed the development of a modern industrial system, vigorously promoted the integration of informatization and industrialization, and promoted the development of industry from big to strong. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the state required the deep integration of informationization and industrialization. Information technology has been fully and effectively used in the main areas and main links of production, operation and management of enterprises, and the optimization and reconstruction of business processes and the synergies of the industrial chain have been significantly enhanced. Information has become The important features of the new industrialization. Cloud computing is an Internet-based supercomputing model. Tens or even tens of thousands of computers and servers are connected in a remote data center. The capacity of more than 10 trillion operations per second is almost omnipotent. Computers, mobile phones, etc. access the data center and store and compute according to their own needs. Cloud computing will have a very big impact on the petrochemical industry.

Technical advancement strategies and measures for the development of China's petrochemical industry 2.1 Through technical innovation, continuously improve the quality of low-quality oil processing, improve the quality of oil products For the definition of oil refining, the traditional statement is to separate various fractions through distillation; now the new saying is Change the rearrangement process of hydrocarbon ratio. The former is a physical process and the latter is a chemical process.

With the rapid development of China's oil refining industry, the production capacity has increased substantially, and the trend of large-scale equipment, transportation pipelines, and diversification of crude oil types has gradually emerged. However, the world’s crude oil is increasingly becoming inferior, and the availability of high-quality crude oil resources has become increasingly limited. In 2011, China’s crude oil imports reached 254 Mt, and high-sulfur and high-acid poor crude oil imports were relatively high. With the decrease of paraffin-based crude oil and light crude oil, the increase in heavy, condensed and aromatic ring crude oil has made it increasingly difficult for domestic oil refining companies to operate. In the past, the idea of ​​refining and chemical integration was proposed. Epylene was used to make olefins, Yifang was used to make fangs, and oil was used to make oil. However, as the variety of crude oil is diversified, certain crude oils are neither suitable nor aromatic. Great difficulty. On the other hand, with the improvement of refined oil quality standards, the refining industry will face problems such as excessive olefins, aromatics content, insufficient octane number, and insufficient cetane number in fuel products, and the device structure needs to be upgraded. China's petrochemical industry is facing opportunities, challenges and strategic levels of technological progress. In particular, the problem of low cetane number in diesel oil is even more urgent, and it is necessary to step up efforts to solve it, and to make technical reserves for the upgrading of domestic oil products.

The urgent need for breakthroughs and improvements in the field of oil refining in the future are as follows: First, to understand crude oil at the molecular level, to strengthen molecular refining, and to give play to the greatest role of each molecule; second, to produce hydrogen at low cost; third, to process poor quality heavy oil; A new generation of catalytic cracking technology; Fifth, a new generation of catalytic material technology.

2.2 Through technological innovation, the development of high-end chemical business to enhance competitiveness At present, domestic petrochemical enterprises have a relatively broad business scope, mainly involving basic chemicals, organic chemicals, synthetic resins, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibers, C chemical special chemicals, fine chemicals Wait for several major categories.

With the rapid development of China's economy, the demand for chemical products in society is increasing. Although domestic enterprises can basically meet the production and supply of major chemical products, there are still some products with insufficient output, and some products have gaps in production technology. Dependency is still about 40%. The target market for petrochemical companies in the Middle East is China, and a large part of the target markets in Japan and South Korea are also China.

At present, domestic petrochemical companies mainly produce general-purpose products. The differentiation of products is not strong and there are fewer high-end products. In order to better meet the needs of the society and enhance the efficiency of enterprises, it is necessary for domestic enterprises to actively plan and deploy product structure adjustments, develop technological innovations, develop high-end businesses, and enhance the competitiveness of chemical businesses. In the future, the urgent breakthroughs and advancements in the field of chemical engineering include basic chemical technologies such as ethylene, aromatics, and methanol, three major synthetic material technologies, and high-end product technologies, particularly single-active center, metallocene, and non-metallocene product technologies. , special fibers and high value-added product technologies. In addition, reserve monomer chemical, coal chemical, biochemical and fine chemical technologies should be actively developed.

2.3 Give full play to the advantages of technology and industry, actively develop coal chemical industry, and promote resource diversification China's fossil energy structure includes more coal, less lean oil and less gas, and the development of coal chemical industry, transforming China's relatively abundant coal resources into liquid alternative fuels and chemicals. It can partially alleviate China's oil shortage.

Replacing naphtha with coal and using coal chemical process routes to produce oxygenated compounds such as ethylene glycol and acetic acid are highly feasible at the molecular level. This is a feasible route. The development of the coal chemical business will help bring into play the petrochemical enterprises' own advantages, promote the diversification of resources, and make overall plans for the use of oil, natural gas, and coal resources to realize the superiority and excellentness of the oil, coal and chemical industry chain. With the continuous breakthrough of technology, new coal chemical technologies represented by large-scale clean coal gasification, large-scale methanol, MTOMTP, large-scale coal-to-oil, coal-to-natural gas, MTG and SO removal, and CO emission reduction technologies represent the coal chemical industry business. Development provides technical support. At the same time, we should strengthen the organic integration, orderly division, and dislocation development of the downstream products of the coal chemical industry and the downstream products of the petrochemical industry. Coal chemical industry should highlight the characteristics of specialization, and petrochemicals should highlight the characteristics of integration and comprehensive utilization of resources. According to the characteristics of regions, resources, and markets, we determined the downstream products of the coal chemical industry and focused on the clean utilization of coal. The coal chemical base will focus on the development of chemical and oxygenated products, reducing CO emissions, with emphasis on ethylene glycol, butanol, Acetate acetate, ethanol, acrylic esters and other products.

2.4 Bringing into play the advantages of integration, and making effective use of various resources in an all-round way The so-called integration refers to large-scale petrochemical bases, whose greatest feature is energy balance. For example, sulphuric sulphuric acid itself is not profitable, but 1t sulphuric acid produces about 1.5t of steam, which can produce greater benefits. Refining and chemical companies need to actively carry out regional optimization. In companies that have ethylene plants, they use light hydrocarbons. In companies that do not have ethylene plants, the ethylene in the catalytic cracker gas is made of ethylbenzene or styrene. If we can understand these resources from the molecular level, make full use of the C and other resources generated in the refining and chemical production processes, and recognize the changing trends from the market level, there is great room for refinery companies to optimize.

For example, it can be considered to concentrate propane for dehydrogenation, and the catalytic dehydrogenation efficiency is 10 to 20 percentage points higher than the steam cracking efficiency. There is styrene in the C aromatics during the steam cracking process to make ethylene. If the styrene in the aromatics is first extracted, energy utilization is more simple and efficient. If the use of gas oil in the catalytic cracking process can be enhanced, the conversion of gas oil into single ring aromatic hydrocarbons can increase the high octane gasoline component, increase the source of aromatic hydrocarbons, and solve the problem that the catalytic cracking of gas oil has low cetane number. The problem. In the diversification of olefinic raw materials, seasonal differences can also be used. In the non-heating season, C resources will be more abundant and can be fully utilized.

Therefore, in the planning and layout of refining and chemical companies, we must consider the coal chemical industry and petrochemical industry as a whole, achieve the integration of refining and chemical industries, and strengthen the effective use of energy resources.

2.5 Emancipating the Mind, Being Brave to Innovate, and Actively Promoting Technological Progress Technological innovation is the driving force for the development of enterprises, including independent innovation and introduction, digestion and absorption, and innovation. To achieve technological progress, in addition to relying on independent innovation, we can also make full use of outside science and technology resources.

Management innovation can reduce the transaction costs of enterprises, and technological progress can reduce the production costs of enterprises. Therefore, scientific and technological personnel must engage in innovation with open minds. Academician Yan Enze's "Petrochemicals - Explore the Way of Independent Innovation from Cases" and the Harvard Management Mentor Selection Series "Third Generation Research and Development", among which the way of thinking is worth Scientists and technicians go to learn and experience and apply it in innovative work.

As science and technology management personnel, it is necessary to integrate knowledge and experience, strengthen the research and exploration of the law of the operation of the enterprise from the technical level and management level, combine the company's development goals with the actual situation of the company, and consider the issue from a global perspective. Any company has its own operating rules. This is also a question of the way of thinking.

Concluding remarks The development, application, and promotion of technology is a relatively long-term cycle. In particular, some forward-looking or significant technological development will take a decade or more to achieve breakthroughs, but once a breakthrough is achieved, it will support the company. , industry and future industry development. In the face of new opportunities and challenges in the development of the petrochemical industry, it is necessary to accelerate scientific and technological innovation, actively implement industrial restructuring, give full play to scientific and technological innovation to support and lead industrial development, and achieve effective and sustainable development of the petrochemical industry.

[1] BP company. 2030 World Energy Outlook 2012 [R]. London: BP, [2] China Energy Mid-to-Long Term Development Strategy Research Team. China Energy Mid-long term 2030, 2050 development strategy synthesis volume [M]. Beijing: Science Publishing [3] BP Corporation. BP World Energy Statistical Yearbook 2011 [R]. London: BP,? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Newsletter Copper Gold Nanoparticle Catalysts Can Convert CO to Methane On April 11, 2012, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts announced that they have invented copper-gold Cu-Au nanoparticle catalysts that can produce co-products of CO It is converted into methane that can be used as a fuel for the plant. The copper-based catalysts commonly used in the CO conversion process are not stable and can significantly reduce the CO reaction rate and produce harmful by-products such as CO and formic acid. MIT researchers designed Cu-Au alloy nanoparticles instead of copper-based catalysts. The alloy catalysts have corrosion and oxidation resistance. Compared to copper-based catalysts, they not only provide better stability, but also reduce CO conversion. energy of.

The researchers mixed and heated the salt solution of Cu and Au, made the nanoparticles by melting, and then used the nanoparticles for the coating of small electrodes. It was found in the experiment that the electrode coated with Cu-Au nanoparticles is more stable than the electrode with copper alone, and the energy required for reaction with CO is much less. Currently, the team is looking for the optimal concentration ratio of Cu-Au.

Although this study uses more expensive gold, it has the following advantages: The product is methane, not CO2, which can reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption; the stability is good, and the electrodes can be reused, so that the initial cost can be balanced.