By Li Shousheng, CPCIF
New progresses in the industry's scientific and technological innovation since the 13th Five-Year Plan
Since the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, innovation-driven strategies and green sustainable development strategies have been actively implemented in the petroleum and chemical industries, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries have been vigorously promoted, strategic emerging industries have been developed, and the supply-side structural reform has been accelerated. The industry's breakthroughs in technological innovation are mainly reflected in the following six aspects:
1. Promoted the development of advanced exploration technology and effectively improved the guarantee capacity of oil and gas supply
PetroChina Changqing Oilfield has laid a solid foundation for the stable production of 50 million tons of crude oil by continuously strengthening the exploration and development of low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs. The Karamay Oilfield has been exploited for half a century, and the remaining recoverable reserves are seriously insufficient. The adjacent Mahu Depression is an area with potential reservoir. The "Theory and Technology of Conglomerate Reservoir in the Depression Area and Discovery of Mahu Extra Large Oilfield" created a theory and technology system of conglomerate reservoir in the Depression Area.
CNOOC’s "Exploration theory, technology and major discoveries for deep large-scale integrated condensate gas fields in the Bohai Bay Basin" pioneered the exploration theory & technology for deep large-scale integrated condensate gas fields in the Bohai Bay Basin, guiding the discovery of the largest integrated 19-6 condensate gas field in East China.
Southwest Petroleum University and other units have jointly developed the shale gas horizontal well network fracturing technology with independent intellectual property.
2. Broke through a batch of modern coal chemical technology with independent intellectual property
Since the “13th Five-Year Plan”, China's modern coal chemical industry has accelerated its progress, a large number of core technical problems such as large-scale advanced coal gasification, coal-to-liquid (indirect method), and coal-to-ethanol have been overcame, and the industrialization of key technical equipment has been realized.
The high-temperature slurry-bed Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst and its industrial application technology jointly developed by SYNFUELS China and other units have been successfully applied to demonstration units of Yitai and Lu'an and commercial units of Ning Coal (4 million tons, the largest indirect liquefaction unit in the world), Hangjinqi (1 million tons) and Lu'an (1 million tons), strongly promoting the development of China's coal indirect liquefaction industry.
The coal gas heat carrier segmented multi-layer low-rank coal pyrolysis complete industrialization technology (SM-GF) developed by the Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group is a good solution to the problems of low-level industrialization of large-scale equipment, narrow raw material adaptability, low efficiency of oily gas dust removal, poor product quality, low level of energy conservation and environmental protection, etc., thus realizing the grading utilization of coal resources, value enhancement and comprehensive and effective use of system heat.
China's modern coal chemical technology innovation has further deepened. Technology for direct synthesis of olefins from synthesis gas, technology for direct production of aromatics from synthesis gas, technology for co-production of ethylene and aromatics from methane without oxygen coupling, CCSI technology, methanol to propylene (DMTP) fluidized bed technology, the fluidized bed technology for co-production of PX and olefins with methanol and toluene (DMTA), oil-coal mixing refining technology, coal classification liquefaction technology, and CO2 hydrogenation to methanol technology are all at a critical stage. The sustainable development of modern coal chemical industry has been significantly enhanced.
3. Developed a batch of new chemical materials and high-end special chemicals to overcome the "weakness" and lead the industry to the high-end level
China's new chemical materials have made breakthroughs in a series of important fields such as advanced polymer materials, high-performance resins, special synthetic rubbers, high-performance fibers, functional film materials, and electronic chemicals. The full industrial chain manufacturing technology developed by Wanhua Chemical for fats / cyclic isocyanates has realized domestic supply of key raw materials for the aerospace military industry, high-end equipment manufacturing industry, new energy industries, and energy-saving and environmental protection industries.
Shandong Dongyue Polymer Materials has successfully developed a new generation of high-performance domestic chlor-alkali ion membrane with “high current density and low tank voltage”, which has promoted the technological innovation of the entire chlor-alkali industry in China.
The new liquid-phase mixing technology developed by the National Rubber and Tire Engineering Technology Research Center has been industrialized at 10 000 tons’ level, reducing the rolling resistance and improving wet skid resistance and wear resistance at the same time.
4. Promoted the innovation of advanced and practical energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, greatly improving the industry's green development level
Since the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the industry has actively promoted the application of advanced energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, and vigorously promoted clean production and circular economy. The total energy consumption of the industry and the energy consumption of key products have continued to decline, and the "three wastes" emissions have been significantly reduced.
In response to the needs of chemical industry technology upgrading and air pollution control, Nanjing University of Technology and other units have developed gas-solid separation membrane materials with independent intellectual property.
Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Group has developed a green catalytic selective hydrogenation technology to achieve continuous clean production of aromatic amines and the utilization of hazardous waste resources.
Anhui Fengyuan Biomaterials Co., Ltd. has developed the technology of polylactic acid. It can produce both polylactic acid fiber and polylactic acid polyester, successfully solving the problem of plastic degradation.
5. Promoted the green, efficient and intelligent development of petrochemical equipment, and enhanced the level of equipment manufacturing
Since the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the scaled growth of China's petrochemical technology and equipment industry has shown a good momentum. Technical equipment industries such as special equipment for oil drilling and production, special equipment for refining and chemical industry, special equipment for coal chemical industry, and special equipment for rubber industry have made great progress. The localization rate of refining equipment is over 90%, the localization rate of million-ton ethylene and downstream equipment is above 85%, the localization rate of modern coal chemical equipment is above 90%, and the localization rate of rubber equipment is about 95%.
6. Improved the scientific and technological innovation system of the petrochemical industry, and created a number of high-level innovation platforms for production, teaching, and research
Since the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, 28 enterprises have been recognized as national-level technology centers, 36 enterprises have been recognized as national technology innovation demonstration enterprises, and the National Development and Reform Commission has identified 30 national and local joint engineering laboratories and engineering research centers. These industry innovation platforms are actively carrying out researches on cutting-edge technologies, applied technologies and engineering transformation, and have played an important role in promoting technological progress in the industry.
Speeding up the innovation capability of the entire industry is an urgent task for the high-quality development of the industry
High-end supplies of new chemical materials and special chemicals are inadequate, and the import dependency is very high. In 2018, the total import and export volume of the petroleum and chemical industry was US$754.335 billion, including US$518.795 billion’s importing and US$235.540 billion’s exporting. Technological innovation is still the "bottleneck" that restricts the high-quality development of the entire industry, which is mainly manifested in:
1. Industry trade deficit is serious, and high-end products are still in short supply
In the past three years, the petrochemical industry has achieved significant results in eliminating backward capacity and accelerating the transformation and upgrading. However, the structural contradiction of “excessive low-end products and short high-end products” are still prominent, especially the surplus of refined oil and basic chemicals, and the lack of high-end petrochemical products such as new chemical materials and special chemicals. In 2018, the industry's main business revenue reached RMB12.4 trillion, of which high-end manufacturing and strategic emerging industries only accounted for less than 10%. The trade deficit of the entire industry reached US$281.2 billion, a substantial increase of 42.5%, of which the synthetic resin, synthetic rubber and synthetic fiber monomers totaled a deficit of US$56.7 billion, accounting for more than 20%.
In 2018, domestic adiponitrile and polyolefin elastomers (POE) markets were entirely depended on imports; ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA)’s import dependency was 60.02%; polycarbonate (PC) 59.72 %; synthetic rubber 49.90%; methyl methacrylate (MMA) 40%. At present, domestic high-end special materials are still mainly imported, with an import dependency of 80%.
2. There is still a considerable gap between the level of green development and the people's expectations
The petrochemical industry is a typical resource and energy industry. In recent years, the waste-water discharge of the petrochemical industry has exceeded 4 billion tons, accounting for about 20% of the national industry’s total. Exhaust gas emissions are about 6 trillion cubic meters, and VOCs alone account for about 40% of total industrial emissions. Waste solid emissions are 370 million tons. With the continuous improvement of the economic and social development, the people's demands for a better ecological environment continue to increase. Under the situation of increasingly severe resource constraints and increasingly stringent environmental protection requirements, accelerating the construction of a green production system with high scientific and technological content, low resource consumption, and low environmental pollution has become an inherent need for sustainable development of the industry.
3. There is still a large gap in core competitiveness between Chinese enterprises and their multinational counterparts
At present, compared with multinational corporations, Chinese petroleum and chemical enterprises are still weak in overall competitiveness, international operation, and anti-risk ability. With the emergence of high-end and disruptive technologies, and the deep integration of industrial and information technologies, the problem of insufficient innovation capabilities has become more prominent.
In-depth implementation of innovation-driven development strategy
It is a must to upgrade and transform traditional industries, vigorously promote advanced and mature processes, new technologies, new equipment, and accelerate the improvement of petrochemical industry technologies on the basis of the major strategic needs of China's new energy, new energy vehicles, rail transportation, aerospace, defense and military industries.
We need to implement clean production technology transformation in traditional industries, optimize raw material structure and product structure, and eliminate backward equipment with high energy consumption, high emissions and high pollution. The proportion of high-end green products in pesticides, fertilizers, dyes, coatings, rubber, adhesives and other industries must be greatly increased. It is necessary to vigorously carry out research and development of unconventional oil and gas resources such as shale gas, coalbed methane, tight oil, biomass energy, and hydrogen energy, and focus on major technical problems that have long plagued the industry, such as the green production technology of oil products and bulk chemical raw materials, "three wastes" emission and resource technology, soil remediation technology, energy-efficient technologies, and CO2 capture, storage, and utilization technologies. It is also necessary to actively promote environmental protection equipment such as flue gas treatment equipment, sewage solid waste treatment equipment, and environmental monitoring equipment to basically achieve serialization and integration.
