Wu Changjiang
Chief Scientist, Sinopec Group Corporation
Director of Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry
Green low-carbon is an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of China's petrochemical industry, and it is necessary to vigorously promote the breakthroughs in new green chemical key technologies and the effective implementation of scientific and technological achievements, and promote the greening, ecological and high-quality development of the petrochemical industry.
Petrochemical industry is an important pillar of the national economy, which is related to the security and stability of China's industrial chain supply chain, green and low-carbon development, and improvement of people's well-being. At the time of the founding of New China, China's petrochemical industry was basically blank, and the journey from starting from scratch to realizing scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement is a process full of challenges and opportunities, continuous innovation and breakthroughs. over the past 70 years, through the introduction, digestion and absorption, independent innovation and R & D, as well as industry chain collaborative innovation and other methods, China's petrochemical industry has continued to iterate and upgrade, and has made remarkable achievements in terms of technological level, product quality, and industrial competitiveness. It has made remarkable achievements in technology level, product quality and industrial competitiveness, providing strong support for the country's economic and social development.
As one of the leading enterprises in China's petrochemical industry, SINOPEC takes the responsibility of a centralized enterprise, continuously promotes scientific and technological innovation, breaks through the main technologies of petrochemical industry, achieves a large number of major scientific theories and engineering scientific and technological achievements, conquers a large number of “neck-breaking” technologies, independently implements a large number of the country's first industrial transformations, fills a large number of domestic gaps, and helps China achieve a high level of technological innovation. It has helped our country realize a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. Relying on independent intellectual property rights, we have designed and constructed multi-million-ton ethylene plants; our aromatics technology is generally at the world's leading level; we have successfully developed gas-liquid polyethylene, third-generation polypropylene and other synthetic materials technology, as well as organic chemical technology such as isopropylbenzene and acrylonitrile, thus forming a competitive advantage and winning the initiative of the strategy.
Green and low carbon is an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of China's petrochemical industry.
Under the background of “double carbon” target, China's petrochemical industry is facing severe pressure on energy resources, and must accelerate green technological innovation, and take greater steps in energy saving, pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Accelerate the promotion of direct cracking of crude oil to olefin technology, direct conversion of syngas to olefin technology, epichlorohydrin green process technology, the third generation of solar cell material technology, carbon capture and utilization technology research, has become the inherent requirements of China's sustainable development.
Green chemical industry is an effective way for the chemical industry to realize sustainable development, and its connotation includes six aspects, including greening of raw materials, greening of catalysts, greening of reaction engineering, greening of energy, greening of products and utilization of resources.
Researchers from Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry (BRICI) are discussing how to make products more suitable for market demand through greening process technology, and boosting the popularization and application of green chemical products. Pan Yanan / photo
Under the guidance of industrial policy and the promotion of social capital, China's green chemical development has achieved certain results in the relevant technical fields, the production of technical services enterprises gradually increased, in the field of green chemical emerging a number of technology research-based, scientific and technological innovation services to lead the industry's green, recycling, and sustainable development of high-tech enterprises, to promote China's chemical technology upgrading, improve the industry's green development level. SINOPEC has been a key player in the development of China's green chemical industry.
SINOPEC has made great contributions to the development of green chemical industry in China.
Raw material greening technology is an important foundation of green chemical industry, which plays an important role in chemical reaction and chemical production, and is one of the most important factors affecting the manufacturing, processing and use of chemicals. With the decline of fossil resources, the conversion and utilization of renewable resources, especially biomass resources, as feedstock has attracted extensive attention worldwide. Sinopec has actively carried out research on the utilization of biomass resources to form bio-based chemical classes such as diacids, diols and key esters and isosorbide to achieve green and large-scale preparation.
Catalyst greening is the key to green chemistry. Through the green design and application of catalyst bodies, carriers and co-catalysts, the energy consumption of reactions can be reduced more efficiently. SINOPEC has developed a direct one-step precipitation and loading process to prepare catalyst carriers, which shortens the process flow and reduces the use of co-catalysts to reduce environmental pollution under the premise of ensuring catalyst activity. The ultra-high-activity and ultra-pure HA series of catalysts has been developed to realize the one-step preparation of the target product, which avoids the need for washing and post-treatment processes, and reduces the energy and material consumption of the device.
Reaction engineering greening technology is an important means for the chemical industry to realize sustainable development. By adopting a series of environmentally friendly, highly efficient and energy-saving technical means in chemical reaction engineering, in order to realize the greening of chemical reaction and reduce the pollution to the environment and the waste of resources. SINOPEC applies self-developed helium separation membrane technology to purify the high helium and hydrogen plant tail gas at Chongqing LNG plant, turning waste into treasure and realizing helium separation and purification by low-energy membrane method; and develops the catalytic cracking process to produce olefins, which rationally utilizes by-products such as carbon tetra and other resources in the process of chemical production to improve the economic value of by-products and reduce the impact on the environment.
The greening of energy is an important trend in the current world energy development. Green energy such as solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, geothermal energy and green hydrogen will become an important development direction for the long-term sustainable development of China's energy sector and ecological environmental protection, which is of great significance to the development of enterprises. SINOPEC independently researches and develops new materials such as polyolefin elastomer POE and carbon fiber reinforced composites, which provide key raw materials for breakthroughs in the solar, wind, and hydro energy industries; innovates and forms a 6-core technology system integrating geothermal exploration technology, drilling technology, automation and control technology, cascade utilization technology, recharging technology, and clean energy integration technology; and independently develops geothermal heat and waste heat comprehensive utilization of oil fields, shallow geothermal heat and sewage, and waste heat comprehensive utilization of shallow geothermal heat, and waste heat utilization of sewage. The company has independently developed oilfield geothermal heat and sewage comprehensive utilization, shallow geothermal energy development and utilization, heat exchange medium and other technologies, and fully exploited medium and deep geothermal energy.
Product greening is one of the important goals of green chemical industry. China has formulated a series of environmental regulations and management measures to promote product greening, as well as policies to promote the development of recycling economy and comprehensive utilization of resources, to which industry, academia, research and application parties have attached great importance. Focusing on medical health, SINOPEC has developed antibacterial polypropylene resins for the first time in the world by using polymerization plants to protect people's lives and health; focusing on green energy saving, SINOPEC has developed green high-performance expanded polypropylene (EPP) with light weight, shock resistance, corrosion resistance, heat and sound insulation and other characteristics, which has been widely used in the packaging, construction, and automotive industries; focusing on the solution to white pollution, SINOPEC has developed high-weathering and recyclable special materials for flooring films, and special materials for recyclable flooring membranes. Focusing on the solution of white pollution, the company has developed special materials for recyclable mulch film and PBST biodegradable mulch film, which contribute to the green development of agriculture.
The green resource utilization of waste polymer materials is the current hot spot of sustainable development. With the massive growth of solid waste after the completion of the use of polymer materials, the pollution problem of waste polymer materials has also become a common concern of the international community. SINOPEC has developed a series of physical and chemical recycling technologies, such as mixed plastic bulking agent technology, low impurity oil production (SPWO) technology for waste plastics, efficient depolymerization and recycling technology for PET, and microwave-assisted pyrolysis technology, to help protect the earth's resources and ecological environment.
Fully promote the green, ecological and high-quality development of the petrochemical industry
China's research and application in green chemical industry started late, and there is still a gap between the degree of technology application and that of some developed countries. At the same time, the production of scientific research results