core reading
The petrochemical and chemical industry is one of the key and key industries in promoting the high-quality development of my country's economy. It has a long industrial chain, many product types, and covers a wide range of fields. It is related to the steady development of the economy, the stability and security of the industrial chain and supply chain, green and low-carbon transformation, and the improvement of people's livelihood.
At present, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry has entered a new stage of development. It is not only faced with opportunities such as improving innovation capabilities, optimizing industrial structure and layout, improving energy efficiency, and digital empowerment, but is also facing weak international competitiveness and the inability of the existing product structure to flexibly respond to market changes. , the current technical level cannot effectively support the challenge of high-quality development. Facing opportunities and challenges, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry must adapt to environmental changes and development trends, continuously enhance original innovation and integrated innovation capabilities, steadily improve the stability and competitiveness of the industrial chain; accelerate industrial structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading, and significantly enhance new chemical materials Guarantee capabilities; optimize and adjust industrial layout, strengthen guidance and regulation, and promote high-level agglomeration development; accelerate industrial digital transformation and empower enterprise operation management; promote green recycling and low-carbon development, and improve intrinsic safety and clean production levels.
Opportunities and challenges coexist
Emerging industries are developing rapidly, but technological levels cannot fully match demand
There is a shortage of key core technologies and original innovation capabilities need to be improved. Although my country's petrochemical industry has made great progress, complete sets of technologies and equipment such as ethylene and aromatics have basically achieved independence, and coal chemical and other technologies have made breakthroughs, it still lacks some key core technologies and downstream supporting technologies. Taking polyethylene as an example, its technology dependence on foreign countries exceeds 90%. The industry is in the catch-up period of relying on imported technology for large-scale investment and construction, and its original innovation capabilities are not strong. Overall, the innovation system inside and outside the enterprise has not yet been fully formed, and independent innovation capabilities are weak.
High-end products are highly dependent on foreign countries, and their independent support capabilities need to be improved urgently. At present, my country's self-sufficiency rate for high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics, high-performance synthetic rubber, membrane materials, and high-purity electronic chemicals is low. Among them, some high-end polyolefins such as polyolefin elastomers are basically dependent on imports; polycarbonate, polyoxymethylene, polyoxymethylene, The self-sufficiency rate of some engineering plastics such as phenylene ether is less than 50%, and structural deficiencies and excesses exist at the same time. In addition, my country's self-sufficiency rate in raw materials, monomers, advanced equipment and other materials required for the production of new materials also needs to be improved.
It is difficult to develop new materials. Breakthroughs often originate from major discoveries in basic sciences such as physics and chemistry, and technology owners do not transfer them to outsiders. Domestic companies are unable to meet the market's demand for high-end products. The "sunk" costs in the early stage of the new materials industry are high, involve a wide range of areas, and are highly professional. There are very few institutions willing to empower new materials start-ups, which restricts the development and growth of new materials companies.
To develop, we must also reduce carbon emissions, and energy efficiency and low-carbon technology levels need to be improved.
Carbon emissions are on the rise with the rapid growth of production capacity. From 2010 to 2020, the average annual growth rate of carbon emissions in the petrochemical industry reached 10%. The total carbon emissions of the four key sub-sectors/products of oil refining, ethylene, propylene, and paraxylene accounted for 55.06% of the total carbon emissions of the petrochemical industry. . Since 2015, the carbon emissions of the chemical industry have entered a plateau period. The main reason is that the production capacity expansion period of key chemical products such as synthetic ammonia and caustic soda occurred before 2015. Under the "dual carbon" goal, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry must take into account both development and carbon reduction. On the one hand, demand for chemicals and new materials continues to grow rapidly, driving rapid growth in production capacity. On the other hand, in order to achieve my country's commitment to achieve carbon peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, green and low-carbon development of the industry is an inevitable choice.
There is still a gap between energy consumption indicators and the international advanced level, and the level of energy optimization and comprehensive utilization needs to be improved. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the average energy consumption of my country's petrochemical and chemical industry continued to decline. Among them, the comprehensive energy consumption of oil refining dropped by 5%; the comprehensive energy consumption of ethylene dropped by 3%. Compared with the international advanced level, there is still much room for improvement in energy consumption indicators such as catalytic cracking and catalytic reforming. In terms of energy optimization and comprehensive utilization, there is still a big gap compared with international leading enterprises.
There are few independent low-carbon technologies, and research needs to be accelerated. All links in the petrochemical and chemical industry chain are faced with the goal of promoting carbon emission reduction and achieving low-carbon development through technological innovation, including carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), biochemical industry, waste chemical recycling and advanced energy conservation. and other low-carbon production technologies in this industry, as well as external related industry technologies such as green power supply. At present, most of my country's independently developed low-carbon technologies are in the small trial or demonstration stage, and there is still a gap between them and the international advanced level of the industry. Green power supply requires not only a major transformation in the energy sector, but also a low-carbon transformation of all end-use energy technologies and equipment. For the petrochemical and chemical industry, electrification will be an important starting point for decarbonizing process energy, and the corresponding infrastructure, process technology, engineering equipment, etc. need to be transformed around new electrification.
The new generation of information technology brings opportunities, but deep digital integration is still a shortcoming
The petrochemical and chemical industry is in the initial and exploratory stage of digital transformation, and there is still a lack of recognized theoretical systems and application cases. The digitalization process of enterprises lacks systematic theoretical guidance and successful experience reference. It still faces huge challenges in how to promote digitalization from pilot projects to the entire enterprise, and even to the collaborative level of the industrial chain.
Core technologies, software and hardware are controlled by others and are in urgent need of breakthroughs. At present, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry relies on imports for its main process technologies and supporting industrial control systems. my country's software development capabilities are weak and its level of standardization is low. Software such as engineering design, product design, process simulation, process simulation, optimization and production process control have long been monopolized by foreign countries. Therefore, it is necessary to make up for the key technologies and software and hardware shortcomings that restrict the deep integration of "two informatizations", build a new modern intelligent petrochemical plant and operating model, and promote the improvement of technology research and development, engineering design, production process, operation management, supply chain and services. Digitalization and intelligence realize the transformation of development mode from big to strong.
Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", my country's status as a major petrochemical and chemical industry has been further consolidated. In 2022, my country's ethylene production capacity will account for 21.3% of global ethylene production capacity, continuing to maintain its position as the world's largest ethylene producer; the output of synthetic resin, synthetic rubber, and synthetic fiber has ranked first in the world for many years in a row. With the increasingly abundant supply of products and the further acceleration of industry structural adjustment, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry has stood at a new starting point and opened a new stage of moving from a large petrochemical and chemical country to a powerful petrochemical and chemical country.
High quality development strategy
Enhance innovation capabilities and enhance the supply capacity and competitiveness of the industrial chain
Currently, global scientific and technological innovation has entered a period of unprecedented intensity and activity. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are reshaping the global innovation landscape and reshaping the global economic structure. If the industry wants to grow from large to strong and achieve high-quality development, it must continue to enhance its scientific and technological innovation capabilities. Therefore, it is particularly important to improve the innovation mechanism, open up channels for science and technology investment, promote the in-depth integration of industry, academia and research, build a collaborative innovation system, and provide and reserve scientific and technological resources that meet the country's current and future development needs. On the one hand, we must pay attention to application-oriented basic research, establish a platform for understanding raw materials such as petroleum at the molecular level, form a systematic theory of the structural characteristics of hydrocarbons in raw materials and core chemical reaction laws, and develop highly targeted and efficient catalysts and Separation and reaction technology to achieve directional and efficient conversion of hydrocarbon molecules; breakthroughs in core technologies such as manufacturing technology, sensing technology, control technology and other important equipment and components such as special structure reactors and high-power electric heating furnaces to enhance the power of innovation and development and enhance the industry Chain stability and competitiveness. On the other hand, focusing on strategic emerging industries and market segments, through catalysts, process innovation or post-modification, we will accelerate the high-end, differentiation and greenization of the three major synthetic materials, form a full range of product solutions, and at the same time scientifically lay out Research and development of high-tech materials such as electronic chemicals and membrane materials. Innovate capital operation and business operation models, promote structural reforms on the product supply side, and enhance product supply capabilities such as high-end polymers and specialty chemicals.
Optimize and adjust the structure and layout to promote high-level industrial cluster development
At present, the overall development quality of my country's petrochemical and chemical industry is not high, the industrial layout is not scientific, the industrial structure is mostly in the middle and low end, duplication of construction still exists, and the industry's profitability is limited. There is an urgent need to change the development mode and improve the quality of development.
Active petrochemical plants must speed up structural adjustment and upgrading. On the one hand, with the goal of maximizing the creation of value for society, we use digital and intelligent technologies to further improve resource utilization, refine raw material processing paths, efficiently separate and utilize by-products, reduce energy and material consumption, and improve device operation levels. Promote "reduce oil and increase specialties" and "reduce oil and increase chemicals" in an orderly manner, expand and extend the chemical industry chain, accelerate the reform process of improving quality and efficiency, and enhance the ability to flexibly match market demand. On the other hand, in line with the principles of overall planning and systematic economy, comprehensive factors from all aspects are established to establish a reasonable indicator system, scientifically evaluate and promote the exit of inefficient and backward production capacity and the relocation of production enterprises.
New petrochemical projects must have strict access conditions and overall layout. Establish a high-quality development standard system at the national level, conduct a comprehensive and systematic evaluation from aspects such as intrinsic safety and low-carbon environmental protection reliability, logistics transmission convenience, product structure and technological advancement, as well as innovation capabilities, economic benefits, international competitiveness, etc., and strictly Access Requirement. When laying out, we must comprehensively consider resources, markets, environmental capacity, logistics and other conditions, maximize the advantages of cluster development in upstream and downstream collaboration, integration of public auxiliary projects, integration of safety and environmental protection emergency response, and integration of management services and finance, and promote the "two In-depth integration of "chemical", improve operational efficiency, enhance professional management and anti-risk capabilities, and form a world-class petrochemical industry base.
Promote green, circular and low-carbon development and improve intrinsic safety and clean production levels
Under the "double carbon" goal, low-carbon green development is the general trend. Carbon emissions in the petrochemical industry mainly come from fuel combustion emissions, followed by process emissions. We can focus on the three paths of "source, process and terminal" to orderly promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in key areas. In terms of source carbon reduction, accelerate breakthroughs in waste chemical material regeneration and recycling technology, low-carbon/zero-carbon hydrogen production technology, biochemical technology, etc., and partially replace traditional oil and gas and other raw materials to achieve multiple effects such as pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and resource conservation. ; In terms of process carbon reduction, we continue to develop new technologies such as heating furnace efficiency improvement, oxygen-enriched combustion, efficient separation, process intensification, and new energy saving, as well as system optimization technologies such as material optimization, energy optimization, and intelligence to accelerate energy saving and improve energy efficiency. Implement measures such as clean energy substitution, new processes and catalysts, and system optimization, and promote demonstration and leadership to achieve process energy reduction and low-carbonization, as well as low emissions in the process; in terms of terminal carbon reduction, strengthen cooperation with low-carbon industries Joint innovation focuses on the development needs of low-carbon industries such as new energy vehicles, renewable energy power generation, and carbon capture and storage (CCS), and strengthens the research and development of new materials such as lightweight automotive materials, wind turbine blades, and advanced energy storage materials. Demonstration of large-scale carbon dioxide capture, storage, oil displacement and chemical production.
At present, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry's ability to prevent and resolve major safety risks still lags behind the world's advanced level, and issues that restrict the safe and green development of the industry are still prominent. Especially as the pace of industrial transformation and upgrading accelerates, the industrial chain continues to expand and extend, and new processes, new materials, and new products emerge in large numbers, new safety hazards have accumulated. It is necessary to prevent hazardous chemicals with the goal of containing and preventing major accidents. Taking systemic safety risks as the main direction, we should highlight the main responsibilities of enterprises, strengthen regulatory responsibilities, standardize the construction and safety management of petrochemical and chemical industrial parks, and build a petrochemical and chemical industry safety governance system that is suitable for major petrochemical and chemical production countries.
(The text of this edition is written by Wang Hongqiu, director of the Strategy and Information Research Office of Petrochemical Research Institute of China National Petroleum Corporation. The picture is written by Wang Dongliang)