Why can coal-to-olefin win the first prize of national technological invention?

Why can coal-to-olefin win the first prize of national technological invention 2015-01-12 09: 08: 43 Science and Technology Daily?

Methanol-to-olefin technology won the first prize of National Technology Invention Award at the 20 14 National Science and Technology Awards Conference.

For ordinary people, terms such as methanol and olefins are really strange, but if methanol is made of olefins and is the raw material of daily necessities such as plastics, most people will realize its importance.

If you focus on the first prize of this year's technological invention with a long lens, you will see some such pictures.

Person: On the podium, Liu, a researcher from Dalian Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, accepted the award on behalf of the research team and retired veterans. After more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, these researchers finally turned a laboratory technology into an industrial production process; Factory: Since the methanol to olefin technology was successfully put into production in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, more than a dozen large-scale industrial devices have been built or started in China, which can solve the employment problem of 1.7 million people. Benefits: It is estimated that the national output value will be increased by 654.38+020 billion yuan, which can stimulate upstream and downstream investment by about 250 billion yuan; Strategic layout: In the past, our olefins were mainly extracted from petroleum. With the sharp increase of China's oil import, the change of international situation will directly or potentially affect China's petrochemical industry. Relying on the relatively rich coal resources in China to produce olefins will guarantee the development of petrochemical industry and energy security strategy in China.

It can be said that methanol to olefin technology won the first prize of national technological invention.

Technology roadmap

Low-carbon olefins such as ethylene and propylene are important basic organic chemical raw materials and the cornerstone of modern chemical industry. Their traditional production technology relies heavily on oil resources, which are insufficient in China. With the development of social economy, the demand for petroleum and petrochemical products is growing rapidly.

Academician Zhang Tao, director of Dalian Institute of Chemistry, calculated an account for the reporter: in 20 13 years, China's crude oil output was 208 million tons, and its consumption reached nearly 500 million tons. The increasingly prominent contradiction between supply and demand has seriously restricted the healthy and stable development of China's economy and related industries.

China is relatively rich in coal resources. Developing coal chemical technology to produce petroleum products from coal and implementing oil substitution strategy are important issues related to the long-term stable economic development and energy security of China. Coal-to-olefin technology has become an important technical approach and strategic development direction to ensure energy security.

In the technical chain of producing olefins from coal, only methanol → ethylene propylene has not been industrialized in the world.

Today, we can clearly see that coal to olefins is the strategic development direction of our country, but more than 30 years ago, when the international oil price was less than $0 10 per barrel, not everyone could clearly see this direction. The research of methanol to olefins in Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology started under this background.

economic benefits

Methanol to olefins is the core technology to realize coal to olefins, which is a worldwide problem. A series of scientific and technical problems related to reaction principle, catalyst and reaction process must be solved.

Liu, the first winner of this technological invention award, recalled that Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology has been carrying out innovative research and development of catalysts and technologies for methanol to olefins since the 1980s.

On the basis of laboratory technology, in 2004, Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology, XXNY Company and ZSHLYYX Company jointly developed a complete set of industrial technology (process name: DMTO) for methanol to light olefins, and built the world's first 10,000-ton industrial pilot plant for methanol to olefins. The test was completed in 2006, and the factory scale and technical indicators are at the international leading level.

Four years later, DMTO technology has completed the leap from industrial test to industrialization. 20 10 On August 8th, China built the world's first methanol-to-olefin industrial plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, using DMTO technology.

DMTO technology brings huge profits to enterprises. Shenhua Baotou coal-to-olefin plant was put into operation until the end of 20 14, and the new profit was 4.34 billion yuan. The NBHY factory has been running for less than ten months, and the net profit of the whole factory has reached 430 million yuan.

In 20 14, DMTO industrial plants entered the climax period, and five sets of industrial plants were put into production one after another throughout the year, increasing the olefin production capacity by 2.8 million tons/year and increasing the economic benefits by more than 6 billion yuan. The total olefin production capacity of seven DMTO units has reached 4 million tons/year, which has promoted the rapid formation of a strategic emerging industry of methanol to olefins in China.

Stick to it for 30 years

In the research and development of coal-to-olefin technology for more than 30 years, oil prices have been affecting the nerves of researchers in Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology. When the oil price is low, the question of whether it is necessary to study the technology of producing olefins from coal will appear.

In the mid-1990s, after Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology completed the pilot project of "producing olefins from synthesis gas by dimethyl ether" with an annual output of 60 tons, the international oil price dropped sharply, with the lowest value less than $0/0 per barrel. Liu said that at that time, our scientific and technological development entered a difficult period. However, the team has always strengthened its belief, overcome difficulties and finally made a major breakthrough.

In 2004, international oil prices began to pick up. Shaanxi province plans to build a coal-to-olefin project, and has established XXNY Company for this purpose. Dalian Institute of Chemicals has established an innovative team with complementary advantages in combination with the technical characteristics of methanol to olefins, which laid the foundation for the ultimate success of DMTO technology.

The advanced deployment, persistent pursuit and complementary cooperation of technology are the reasons for the success of DMTO technology.