The soaring oil and natural gas prices in North America have caused the petrochemical products originally concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico to lose their original market competitiveness. At the same time, the new energy policy that China is pursuing has created a good opportunity for the development of coal chemical projects. In this context, some chemical companies in the United States have begun to take action in China to achieve industrial production of coal-to-olefins and C1 chemicals.
The world-famous coal chemical leader Celanese has a leading technology for the production of coal-based C1 chemicals. The comprehensive project for coal-based methanol and carbon monoxide to acetic acid and its derivatives built in Nanjing will be put into operation in 2007. The comprehensive project uses coal-based methanol to produce 600,000 tons of acetic acid per year, and the capacity of vinyl acetate monomer is 300,000 tons per year. Other products include acetic anhydride and vinyl acetate derivatives.
Dow Chemical Company is seeking to use Chinese coal to produce olefins and their derivatives. The company recently cooperated with China Shenhua Group and plans to build a super-large coal-to-olefins project in China. The site of the project will be selected in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, which is rich in coal reserves, industrial water supply and product distribution in China. The total investment of the project is approximately 11.7 billion yuan, including the construction of 1.8 million tons/year of methanol, 600,000 tons/year of methanol to olefins, 300,000 tons/year of polyethylene, 310,000 tons/year of polypropylene, and 94,000 tons/year of butane 14,000 tons/year of ethane and propane. The entire project consumes 3.45 million tons of raw coal and 1.28 million tons of fuel coal. The coal is supplied by Shenhua Group Wanli Coal Mine.
Eastman Chemical also intends to introduce its coal gasification technology mainly to Asia. The company’s North American facility already uses 25% coal as the fuel and raw material gasification technology to produce C1 chemicals. The next step is to seek development in Asia.
Foreign commentators believe that the Chinese government is implementing new energy policies that use coal resources to make up for the increasingly scarce domestic demand for oil and gas supplies. The above-mentioned coal chemical project construction is exactly in line with the requirements of China's implementation of the coal energy policy. China’s petrochemical industry is increasingly relying heavily on imported naphtha feedstocks. If the development of coal to olefins is to achieve industrial production, it will, to some extent, reduce the excessive dependence of China’s ethylene industry on petroleum resources and relieve the strain on China’s oil resources. Positive significance.