From relying on foreign funding to commercialization of independent technology, China's coal direct liquefaction has gone through an extraordinary journey of 30 years.
Shu Geping is currently the vice president and chief engineer of Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Chemical Company. He was born in 1961 and was assigned to the liquefaction room of the Coal Research Institute of the Coal Research Institute in 1985. During his 29-year career, he never left the field of direct liquefaction of coal. He was the first person in China to contact coal direct liquefaction. He has experienced personal experience in the direct evolution of coal liquefaction in China and the transformation of technical routes.
Nowadays, Shenhua Group is promoting the construction of the second and third lines of coal direct liquefaction, but the industry's doubts about direct liquefaction of coal have not yet subsided. In view of this, the reporter of "Energy" magazine recently visited Shu Geping, and intends to clarify the development of direct coal liquefaction in China from his personal experience.
Not long after the Spring Festival in 1982, I participated in the postgraduate entrance examination for the liquefaction room of the Coal Research Institute of the Coal Research Institute (now known as the Institute of Liquefaction of the Coal Industry Branch of the Coal Science Institute) as an undergraduate student at Hangzhou University (predecessor of Zhejiang University). After a few months, I successfully got the acceptance letter and became one of the two graduate students admitted to the liquefaction room that year. When I reported to the liquefaction room in September, the office building was not fully completed and the pilot plant was under construction.
The mission of the liquefaction chamber was to promote the direct liquefaction of coal, including office buildings and test plants, all funded by the then Ministry of Coal. This is also the earliest institution in China to start direct coal liquefaction. Being a graduate student in the liquefaction room also made me a direct liquefaction contact with coal from the graduates of Hangda Materialization. It was only when I reported to the liquefaction room that I did not expect the direct liquefaction of coal, which would become my life's business.
After graduating from the liquefaction room, I have been working in the liquefaction room, and my position has risen step by step. Later, I became the deputy director of the liquefaction room, and partnered with the director of Shi Shidong. In 2001, I became the deputy director of the Coal Chemical Industry Institute. In 2002, Zhang Yuzhuo was appointed as the deputy general manager of Shenhua Group as the deputy general manager of the Coal Science and Technology Institute. He was responsible for promoting the direct coal liquefaction project. I was invited by Zhang Yuzhuo to enter the Shenhua Group to participate in the construction of the world's first direct coal liquefaction project. Management, until now.
When I think of the years in the liquefaction room, the research funding is stretched, and everyone dare not expect the direct liquefaction of coal to be industrialized. But now, Shenhua's first direct coal liquefaction project has achieved staged success, achieving long-term stable operation and achieving profitability last year. This was unimaginable at first. Look at yourself again. When I first arrived at the liquefaction room, I didn't know anything about the direct liquefaction of coal. But as I walked down, I became one of the most experienced experts in this field. Calculating the time of dealing with coal direct liquefaction, I have been unconscious for 32 years.
Liquefaction room years
In the three years of the graduate school, I spent 20 years in the liquefaction room. The most profound memory of this is the lack of research funding, which makes the research work very embarrassing. In order to maintain the research on direct liquefaction of coal, for a while, it has to go outside to accept the work to subsidize research.
There are three sources of research funding for the liquefaction chamber. Some of them are research funds allocated by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Because the direct liquefaction of coal was included in China's "sixth five-year" scientific and technological projects, the Ministry of Science and Technology has allocated more than 1.5 million yuan for direct liquefaction in the liquefaction room. At the time of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan", direct coal liquefaction was also included in scientific research projects. However, by the "Eighth Five-Year Plan", direct coal liquefaction was eliminated, and there was no national funding support ever since.
The main source of funding for the liquefaction chamber is cooperation with Japan. The partner is Japan's new energy industry comprehensive research institute. Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, the agency has launched the “New Sunshine Plan†to find alternative energy sources, one of which is direct coal liquefaction and coal conversion. The cooperation with the liquefaction chamber is mainly to find coal suitable for direct liquefaction in China. The Japanese side provided a set of direct coal liquefaction equipment and provided experimental funding.
The last part of the funding is provided by the United Nations [microblogging] UNDP. This part of the funds is mainly used for personnel to go abroad and training, and to purchase analytical instruments. Staff salaries are paid by the Coal Science Institute. The funds provided by the State and Japan are used to carry out the operation of the test device.
The coal direct liquefaction plant provided by the Japanese has a daily coal volume of 0.1 tons, and the old IG process is used. The final solid-liquid separation is still treated by a centrifuge. According to the cooperation agreement between the liquefaction chamber and the Japanese side, the liquefaction chamber should be screened for domestic coal suitable for direct liquefaction of coal. The initial test range was 10 coal types, which were later expanded to 15. The coal is operated once per test unit, and the Japanese side provides operating costs of 50,000 US dollars. The operational data obtained in this part is shared by us and the Japanese.
On the other hand, we use the autoclave equipment owned by the liquefaction chamber to explore the properties of direct liquefaction of domestic coal in a wider range. The data obtained in this part include conversion rate, oil yield, water yield, etc. enjoy.
In fact, apart from some small topics, the most important task of the liquefaction room during that time was to implement the cooperation agreement with Japan. In 1986, through the cooperation project between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the German Research and Technology Department, we obtained a set of direct coal liquefaction plant from Germany for free. This set of equipment has a daily processing capacity of 0.12 tons, using a new IG process. In the solid-liquid separation, a vacuum distillation method is employed.
At the time, there were three main technical routes for direct coal liquefaction in the world, including the new IG process, hydrogen supply solvolysis and solvent extraction. The Japanese worked very rigorously. They combined the advantages of these three technical routes, and finally formed their own NEDOL process. In Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation, a test device with a daily processing capacity of 1 ton was established, and later Industrialized test equipment for processing 150 tons of coal per day.
The Japanese side also converted the vacuum distillation part of the German plant to the Japanese device in two sets of liquefaction chambers, and modified it according to the NEDOL process. The remaining part of the German plant was transformed into a solvent hydrogenation unit. The two units were combined into one, which became a new NEDOL process coal direct liquefaction test unit, and the daily coal consumption was still 0.1 tons.
The five years from 1991 to 1995 were the most difficult five years of research funding for the liquefaction chamber. Because coal direct liquefaction is not included in the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" scientific and technological projects, there is no state funding. It is also from this time that the Japanese have provided funding for the equipment from the initial provision of equipment and personnel support to keep the equipment running.
After 1995, the capital situation of the liquefaction room was even more difficult, because the cooperation agreement with Japan had expired and the Japanese side had no financial support. In order to maintain the operation of the equipment, the Coal Science Institute will provide RMB 100,000 per year. During this period of time, we became the "maintenance society" period. Director Shi Shidong was the president of the "maintenance society". We used the influence of the coal science institute to go to the coal mine to conduct some expert consultation and obtain income to subsidize equipment operation and technology. the study.
Just as there is a trough in the development of things, in the lowest tide of the period, we all did not expect that the turning point will soon come, and the direct liquefaction of coal will enter a new era.
Inspection and transfer
That was January 17, 1996, when President Jiang Zemin was coming to the liquefaction room for inspection. On that day, Jiang Zemin inspected two places, one was the coal-water slurry technology of China National University of Mining and Beijing, and the other was the direct coal liquefaction technology of the liquefaction chamber.
Later, I recalled that Jiang Zemin’s inspections were also traceable. First, since 1993, China has become a net importer of oil. At that time, I had exchanged with a deputy minister of the Ministry of Petroleum. Through him, I learned that the cost of oil exploration is very high. He told me that with 100 wells, there may be only a few wells with oil. On average, 1 million tons of oil is found, which requires 5 billion yuan. We are also estimating the investment in direct coal liquefaction. At the time, it was not accurate. The result was almost 1 million tons of oil, and the investment was about 5 billion. After talking with him, I feel that if the whole life cycle is compared, the direct liquefaction of coal into oil may not be higher than the direct mining of crude oil. Later, this deputy minister may have written the internal reference and submitted it to Jiang Zemin's visit.
Jiang Zemin went to the liquefaction room and I was one of the accompanying personnel. I took the naphtha that was liquefied with coal in the liquefaction chamber. Jiang Zemin smelled the bottle and said, "It's quite tasteful." He said that China is formulating the "10th Five-Year Plan". "I certainly hope that during the 'fifteenth' period, I will find several Daqing oil fields and hold a few golden dolls. But from various circumstances, it is almost impossible." After listening to our introduction, I feel that the direct liquefaction technology of coal is not a problem, mainly economic problems. However, Jiang Zemin mentioned that China's national conditions are different, and the energy structure is "rich coal, poor oil, and less gas." At that time, he accompanied him to inspect, and there were several leaders of relevant ministries and commissions. Jiang Zemin spoke and asked the ministries and commissions to support them, choose a few points, and do industrial demonstrations.
So the coal sciences institute took the lead and selected points nationwide. There are several considerations in the selection, including coal liquefaction performance, reserves, and local oil products. Finally, we selected 3 points. One is Yunnan Pioneer's lignite, which has large reserves and good liquefaction performance, and there is a shortage of local oil in Yunnan, which is very suitable for building factories. The second is Yilan coal in Heilongjiang Province. Although the reserves are not high, the liquefaction performance ranks first among the coals tested in the liquefaction chamber. The third is Erdos (9.41, 0.00, 0.00%), where the liquefaction performance of coal ranks first among the 10 coals we tested, but the reserves are large and the mining conditions are also very good.
The location of the direct coal liquefaction plant was initially selected, and the next step was to select the right technology. Now it seems that if there are some unsatisfactory places in the choice of technology, there will be no Shenhua coal direct liquefaction technology turned out, so the disasters and blessings, the gains and losses can only be judged by time.
Three German and German competitions
Because it is determined in three places, we are ready to adopt three foreign coal direct liquefaction processes. Our first thought was our long-term partner, Japan's new energy industry comprehensive development agency, we first sent a letter to them to explain the matter. Then we contacted the German DMT Mining Institute, they have the IGOR process, and the US HTI company.
The German side was the first to respond. They sent a technician and a deputy manager. Because of the first visit, we told them that we chose three locations, and they chose Yunnan Lignite. Followed by the US, they chose the coal of Shaanxi Shenmu. When the Japanese finally arrived, they did not believe that China had the ability to do direct coal liquefaction. Later, they saw that both Germany and the United States came, and sent a survey team of more than a dozen people. All three sites visited it again, but because Two points have already been chosen, so the Japanese side can only choose Yilan coal in Heilongjiang, they are quite unhappy.
At that time, there were no owners in Heilongjiang and Yunnan. Only Erdos was a Shenhua coal mine, so Shenhua Group participated in the Erdos project from the beginning. The selection of this piece has been vying for Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. It has not been determined for a long time. However, for direct liquefaction, the selection point is at the junction of the two provinces and belongs to the same coalfield. It has no impact in itself and was finally settled in Inner Mongolia.
In the second year after Jiang Zemin’s inspection, in 1997, the Coal Science Institute took the lead in initiating contact with the technical parties and finally completed the technical and economic reports on the direct coal liquefaction of the three localities and submitted them to the then State Planning Commission.
Also considering that there are no owners in Heilongjiang and Yunnan, the Japanese feel that the Shenhua project is most likely to land. So after completing the Heilongjiang Yilan coal technology economic report, the Japanese side found Shenhua, bought 50 tons of coal, and returned to their daily processing. 1 ton of test equipment, free to give Shenhua a technical economic report, so the Shenhua Erdos project, there are two technical economic reports.
Finally, the technical partners are mainly concerned with the technical and economic reports. The oil yield obtained by the US using the HIT process can reach 66%, while the oil yield obtained by the Japanese side using the NEDOL process is about 51-52%, so the Shenhua Group finally chose the US side. HTI process.
Shenhua Craft was born
HTI in the United States has no funds, only a small device, and the size of the device in the liquefaction room is small. They also have a device that processes 3 tons of coal per day, but not the HTI process. Later, Shenhua Group invested twice to transform the device into an HTI process, and to operate, and finally report.
But now it seems that the Japanese work is more solid, and the coal in Ordos is now verified by industrial projects, and the oil yield is 51-52%. The US reported oil yields were overestimated.
Set HTI technology around 2002, this year Zhang Yuzhuo entered Shenhua as deputy general manager, responsible for promoting direct liquefaction projects. He also started to build a team at this time. I reported to Shenhua at the end of January 2002. Actually, Shenhua is In April, after entering Shenhua, I began to learn more about HTI technology. I feel that this technology is risky. I will go to communicate with Zhang Yuzhuo.
The high oil yield of the HTI technology is due to the residue after the direct liquefaction of the coal, and also contains a certain amount of oil. The HTI process extracts this part of the solvent and returns it to the main process. However, in actual operation, after the main process of this part of the oil, heavy substances will deposit in the system, which will eventually affect the system operation.
In April, it was decided to transform the NEDOL unit of the liquefaction chamber into an HTI unit, verify the data of the HTI process package, start the transformation in July, complete the operation in August, and then start the operation, and once again, it is impossible to continue operation. Sometimes the situation is good, it can run for 1 day, but never more than 5 days.
However, at that time, the State Council had approved the direct liquefaction project and determined the HTI process. Zhang Yuzhuo also felt very embarrassed. In September of that year, I, Zhang Yuzhuo, and Shenhua General Manager Chen Biting visited Germany, France, Italy, and the United States. On the way, Zhang Yuzhuo talked about this. He said, I am coming now. You handed me the seeds (HTI process). Based on the conditions of this seed, I found the best gardener and gave it the best growing conditions. But if the seeds don't work, I can't grow up, I can't be responsible. At that time, Chen Biting said, "How can the seeds not work?" Still have to study again.
Returning from the United States happens to be October 1. I use the holiday time to write a report and make recommendations to make major adjustments to the HTI process. After writing the report, I submitted it to Zhang Yuzhuo. He affirmed my report and thought it was very good and timely. However, I asked the individual to make adjustments to ease the tone. Then he submitted the report to Ye Qing, chairman of Shenhua.
On the first working day after the National Day holiday, Ye Qing called a meeting. At the meeting, there were five people except Ye Qing, the vice chairman of Tu Zhuming, Zhang Yuzhuo, I, Jin Jialu (deputy director of the original liquefaction room), and Shi Shidong. I propose to make adjustments to the HTI process, and Zhang Yuzhuo agrees with me. Tu Zhuming’s opinion is very close to ours. So Ye Qing said that he wanted to modify the HTI process. At that time, the opinion signed a basic design contract with the US, and immediately contacted the US to suspend the meeting.
However, the basic design of the Shenhua coal direct liquefaction project is about to begin. We can only obtain the direct liquefaction data of the coal through simulation to provide the designer with the basic design. At the same time, the small set of liquefaction chambers was further modified, and the original HTI residue extraction medium return unit was cancelled, and the data was obtained, and the data after the original simulation was replaced.
After the liquefaction chamber test was completed, Ye Qing held another meeting because the process was completely different from other processes. Ye Qing made a decision and did not use the HTI process to switch to his own process. This part of the process is mainly from my report, that is, Shenhua’s ideas and funds, and the manpower from the liquefaction room, eventually formed this Shenhua process. Compared with the original HTI process, the HTI process has four kinds of solvent oils, the first one. It is a hydrogenated solvent oil, the second is a heavy oil distilled under reduced pressure, the third is a residue extraction oil, and the other is a solidified oil containing high temperature and high pressure. At the end of the Shenhua process, only one type of hydrogenated solvent oil was left, and all other related equipment was cancelled.
There is also the problem of catalysts. At the beginning of the project, we replaced the original catalyst with natural iron-containing minerals, and at the same time stepped up the development of the "863" catalyst. At the end of 2002, the HTI process was cancelled, and in 2003, the “863†catalyst was successfully developed. In April 2004, Shenhua Process completed the final test. In June, it was jointly identified by PetroChina (10.48, 0.36, 3.56%) Chemical Industry Association and China Coal Association. In July, China Consulting Company was asked to re-evaluate the adjusted process. After the program was completed, the Shenhua direct liquefaction project started construction. At the same time, Shenhua Group applied for intellectual property rights to Shenhua Technology to the State Intellectual Property Office on July 30, 2004, and finally obtained the certification on May 24, 2006.
Million tons of projects
Although the Shenhua process has been formed, the equipment that processes 0.1 tons of coal per day from the liquefaction chamber is enlarged to a million tons of oil products industry project, and the span is too large. In 2003, Shenhua chose to build a 6-ton coal direct liquefaction plant in Shanghai to reduce the risk of scale-up and also train skilled workers. After the completion of the project on December 17, 2004, it operated for more than 5,000 hours. , training more than 500 operators. It seems that this device is very important now. In five years, there have been many problems with this device. Some problems will be devastating if they appear on industrial devices, but this device is avoided.
The Shenhua Direct Liquefaction Project was officially started on August 25, 2004, and began to be commissioned on December 30, 2008. At that time, the top officials of the country attached great importance to this project. Before the project was started, Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang held a special meeting for the first time in Zhongnanhai, and established the head of the coordination group for the first driving guidance of Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology. Li Yizhong formed three groups. The security group was headed by the State Administration of Work Safety. The security group was led by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission [microblogging]. The expert group was led by Cao Xianghong, and the members were mainly from Sinopec [microblogging]. These three groups were investigated on site for more than two months, and finally concluded that they have driving conditions.
I still remember that driving at about 2:40 pm on December 30, the first time I drove very successfully, and continued to run for 303 hours. Japan's NEDOL process has the best driving conditions in several processes, and the first drive has only lasted for more than 30 hours. After the first driving, everyone was determined. This shows that Shenhua’s big problem has not been solved. Shenhua Group has released news.
After several years of operation, Shenhua's direct liquefaction project has been continuously improved every year, and the annual running time has also steadily increased. After running for 315 days last year, the project has achieved long-term stable operation and profitability. Now we are preparing to directly liquefy the second and third lines of coal. The second internal review meeting was held in Beijing last month. Apart from the improvement in design, the second part of the line will continue to be extended, and the economic benefits will continue. Further improvement, the total direct liquefaction capacity of Shenhua will reach 4 million tons (including 700,000 tons of blending oil devices). The plan was completed in 2018.
One aspect we have to improve is environmental protection. In 2013, Greenpeace accused Shenhua's direct liquefaction project of illegal sewage discharge and over-exploitation of groundwater. The actual sewage discharge is due to the unstable operation of the device, and the back-end treatment of sewage bacteria died, and the sewage must be temporarily discharged into the evaporation pond. The groundwater used in the project has been approved by the state department. However, considering that the local water resources are not abundant, Shenhua has made a commitment to use the coal mine water near Shenhua in the future, and then directly liquefy and reuse the coal after treatment, when the groundwater is only used as a backup water source.
It seems that although Shenhua's direct liquefaction technology needs further improvement, it has reached a stage of success. However, when I recalled Jiang Zemin's words, under the efforts of Shenhua, the direct liquefaction of coal finally fell to the ground. While providing technical reserves for the national energy strategy security, it also realized economic benefits and achieved the unification of corporate interests and national interests.
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