Petrochemical vs. coal gasification: which is the best route for olefins?

1. The development background of methanol to olefins industry

olefin products represented by ethylene propylene are important basic compounds, also important products to measure the development level of a country's petrochemical industry. The development of olefin industry drives the development of other organic chemical products. In recent years, China's ethylene industry has developed rapidly. In 2013, the ethylene production capacity reached 18.725 million tons / year, the output was 16.225 million tons, the import volume was 1.704 million tons, the apparent consumption was 17.929 million tons, the consumption self-sufficiency rate reached 90.5%. Now it is the world's second largest ethylene producer after the United States.

with the rapid development of ethylene oil refining industry, the production capacity output of propylene are also increasing. In 2013, the production capacity of propylene reached 20.82 million tons / year, the output was 19.03 million tons, the import volume was 2.64 million tons, the apparent consumption was 21.67 million tons, the self-sufficiency rate of domestic consumption was 87.8%. At present, there is still a big gap in the equivalent consumption of ethylene propylene in China, there is still a great potential for the development of ethylene propylene industry. In the energy consumption structure of

, oil accounts for 17.7%, coal accounts for 68.5%, natural gas accounts for 4.7%. However, due to the shortage of oil resources, China's dependence on crude oil imports has increased year by year. In 2013, the external dependence of crude oil was 57.4%. In recent years, the external dependence of crude oil has been continuously increasing. It is estimated that the external dependence of crude oil will be close to 60% by 2015.

at present, ethylene propylene in China are mainly produced by petrochemical route, which is heavily dependent on oil. China's increasing dependence on crude oil to a certain extent limits the development of ethylene propylene products produced by petrochemical routes. China's energy characteristics of "rich coal, poor oil less gas" determine that the sustainable development of the national economy needs to rely on adjusting optimizing the energy structure, reducing the dependence on oil imports, giving full play to the advantages of coal resources vigorously developing coal chemical industry In high-tech industry, coal chemical products replace petrochemical products. Reasonable development of methanol to olefins diversification of raw materials for ethylene propylene production are of great significance for reducing the pressure of crude oil supply developing ethylene propylene industry.

2. The development of methanol to olefins industry in China. The industrial research of

methanol to olefins has been carried out for many years. Some famous oil chemical companies in the world, such as Exxon Mobil, BASF, UOP, Norsk Hydro Lurgi have invested a lot of money in the research; many domestic scientific research institutions enterprises have also carried out a lot of development research in this field, such as Dalian Institute of chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute, Wison Engineering (China) Co., Ltd The company Jiangsu coal chemical engineering research Design Institute have also made some achievements. According to the different target products,

can be divided into two categories: MTO process with ethylene propylene as target product MTP process with propylene as target product.

in China's coal rich low-cost areas, the large-scale production of methanol, methanol to olefins, compared with the traditional naphtha pyrolysis process, has a strong competitiveness.

In 2013,

was put into operation successively in Ningbo Fude Energy Co., Ltd. (formerly Heyuan) Wison (Nanjing) clean energy Co., Ltd. at present, there are 6 coal (methanol) to olefin plants in China, with a total capacity of 2.74 million tons / year. However, most enterprises choose to use coal to methanol to olefin integration unit to achieve self-sufficiency of raw materials Bofu energy (original Heyuan) Wison purchased methanol for production. Generally speaking,

, the economic benefits of MTO project mainly depend on cost, that is, coal price methanol cost. In addition, the coal chemical project needs a large amount of electricity steam. If investors can realize the "coal electricity chemical" integrated production, the production cost of methanol olefins can be reduced to the maximum extent.

therefore, the olefin routes (coal methanol olefins) with coal as the source are mostly built in areas rich in water coal resources, while the olefin routes (methanol olefins) with purchased methanol as the source are built in the port area, facilitating the import of raw materials the export of products. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 40 coal to olefin projects under construction or in the early stage. If the projects are completed put into operation as scheduled, the domestic coal to olefin production capacity will exceed 20 million tons by 2017.

3. Cost benefit analysis comparison of olefin production from different raw materials. First of all, according to the price data of crude oil, imported methanol naphtha in the same period (selected the data from 2011 to 2013), we determined the corresponding import methanol naphtha prices under different crude oil prices through regression analysis. The correlation coefficient between domestic coal price crude oil price is not significant, it does not correspond to crude oil price when measured separately.

take Inner Mongolia coal price as an example. When coal price is 380 yuan / ton, polyolefin cost is about 6000 yuan. When the coal price is 760 yuan / ton, the cost of coal to polyolefin is approximately equal to that of imported methanol to polyolefin; when the coal price is higher than 760 yuan / ton, the cost of coal to polyolefin is higher than that of imported methanol to polyolefin.

in general, at the current price, the cost of polyolefin products of coal to olefin route is about 80% of that of naphtha route, the cost composition is different from that of naphtha route. The raw material cost of coal to olefin route is significantly lower than that of naphtha route, while the depreciation cost of fixed assets is significantly higher than that of naphtha route, the water consumption carbon dioxide emission of coal to olefin route are higher than that of naphtha route. It is necessary to develop advanced petroleum cracking technology to improve olefin yield reduce energy consumption. Methanol to olefins (MTO) technology has a certain scale of industrial plants in China, which will be an important supplement of petroleum route to olefins. Methanol to olefins technology has a great development prospect in China.

ethylene propylene downstream strong market dem China's resource structure also decided that we must take the route of olefin raw material diversification, the sustainable national economyThe healthy development requires us to rely on our own resource advantages to develop the production of petrochemical basic raw materials. The development of coal based methanol to olefin industry is conducive to alleviate the shortage of light petrochemical resources meet the growing market requirements. The high international oil price also makes methanol to olefin projects more competitive.

at present, with the successive commissioning of methanol to olefin industrial units, the methanol to olefin industry has shown the development trend of substantial increase in production capacity. At that time, the dem for methanol will increase sharply, the supply of raw methanol will directly affect the development trend of methanol to olefin industry. Moreover, in terms of technology, water consumption, energy consumption carbon dioxide emission reduction, the methanol to olefin project needs further integration optimization. The development of methanol to olefin project requires comprehensive consideration of local resources, policies, future trend of crude oil price supply-dem relationship of olefins, the advantages disadvantages of all parties. However, there is a lack of stardized layout of methanol to olefin projects, repeated construction occurs, which will lead to imbalance of regional water resources supply dem, increase the difficulty of energy conservation emission reduction. It is expected that the state will continue to issue policies to regulate the development of coal chemical industry, which will add uncertainty to the development of methanol to olefin industry. "

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