2020 is the big year for domestic ethylene glycol production. On August 24, Xinjiang Tianye Group’s 600,000-tonne ethylene glycol project successfully produced polyester-grade ethylene glycol products, meeting the polyester industry’s ethylene glycol indicators The highest requirement marks the completion of the whole process of the project and enters the production operation stage.
It is understood that the project mainly relies on Tianye Group’s rich production experience and scientific research results in the coal chemical industry, and uses internationally advanced dimethyl oxalate synthesis and hydrogenation technology to produce polyester-grade glycol, which fully reflects the large-scale project equipment. , Competitive advantages of technology intensive and large-scale production, the project's core reactor production capacity, single set of production line scale, and product quality occupy a leading position at home and abroad. It is currently the largest coal-to-ethylene glycol project built in China.
The industrial production process route of ethylene glycol is divided into two categories according to different raw materials:
One is the ethylene route, which uses crude oil, ethane or methanol as raw materials; it is the most mature process route with absolute market advantage among the existing processes.
The second is the synthesis gas route, which uses coal, natural gas, and coke oven gas as raw materials, which is suitable for the relatively abundant coal resources in my country.
Syngas oxalate route to ethylene glycol includes 3 steps.
At present, the domestic industrialized oxalate route technology holders mainly include Japan High Chemical Co., Ltd.-Donghua Technology Company-Zhejiang Liansheng Chemical Company Consortium, China Wuhuan Engineering Co., Ltd.-Huashuo Technology Co., Ltd.-Hebi BMW Technology Group Consortium, Shanghai Pujing Chemical Technology Co., Ltd.-East China University of Science and Technology-Anhui Huaihua Group Consortium, Ningbo Zhongke Yuandong Catalytic Engineering Technology Co., Ltd.-China Chengda Engineering Company-Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Shandong Hua Consortium of Lu Hengsheng Chemical Co., Ltd., Fujian Institute of Material Structure, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Danhua Chemical Technology Company-Shanghai Jinmei Chemical New Technology Co., Ltd.-Consortium of Henan Energy and Chemical Group, Sinopec, etc. Among the six technologies, Tongliao Jinmei's technology is highly confidential to the outside world and has not been transferred to companies outside the group; Sinopec's technology is only used within its own units and not transferred to outsiders.
The key to this technical route is the performance of the carbonylation catalyst and hydrogenation catalyst, which is closely related to the energy consumption of the system and the quality of the product. The proportion control of the oxidative esterification unit O2, methyl nitrite and NO, as well as the monitoring and prevention measures are the guarantee of safe operation. The design of the distillation unit and the separation of by-products have an important impact on the product quality and the economic benefits of the device.
Under the premise that the oxalate route coal-to-ethylene glycol production technology is basically mature, the life cycle of the carbonylation and hydrogenation catalysts has become the focus of production cost control.
The first-generation syngas-to-ethylene glycol SEG® carbonylation catalyst developed and produced by Gao Chemical has a service life of more than 6 years on the Xinjiang Tianye ethylene glycol plant. In December 2013, about 11 tons of the first-generation carbonylation catalyst produced by Gaochem (Jiangsu) New Chemical Materials Co., Ltd. was loaded into a carbonylation reactor of the 50,000-ton/year ethylene glycol plant of Xinjiang Tianye Phase I (a total of two A carbonylation reactor) until the furnace catalyst has completed its mission in May 2020. In more than 6 years, a total of about 310,000 tons of polyester-grade ethylene glycol was produced, of which the reactor equipped with a high-chemical first-generation catalyst produced about 155,000 tons of ethylene glycol, which is equivalent to 14,000 tons of ethylene glycol per ton of carbonylation catalyst. .
Xinjiang Tianye Group began to research key technologies of ethylene glycol catalysts in 2013, set up an ethylene glycol catalyst R&D team, mastered the core technology of catalysts, filed a total of 5 patent applications for inventions, and will promote the industrialization of catalysts in the future.
Oxalate route coal-to-ethylene glycol technology is almost mature, but there is still great potential to be tapped. For example, the poor stability of hydrogenation catalysts, low ethylene glycol selectivity, and high product impurities restrict the long-term operation of the coal-to-ethylene glycol plant and the application of its products in the downstream polyester industry. The conversion rate of the hydrogenation catalyst , Selectivity, stability and service life have become the focus of attention of all technical parties. In terms of technical engineering support, future research and development will focus on system optimization, energy utilization, and reduction of steam and electricity consumption. It is expected that with the improvement of the technical level of coal-based routes and the increase in the output of ethylene glycol products, the acceptance of downstream polyesters will further increase.
Polyester production capacity continues to expand, ethylene glycol self-sufficiency rate is less than 50%
From 2008 to 2019, the total demand for ethylene glycol in my country increased from 6.71 million tons to 17.852 million tons, an increase of 166.05%. As the main consumption area of ethylene glycol, the demand growth of polyester is the most impressive: in 2008, the demand for ethylene glycol corresponding to polyester was 6.37 million tons, and it increased to 16.77 million tons in 2019, and the growth rate reached 163.27% in 10 years.
Other consumption areas of ethylene glycol only account for less than 5%. The demand for antifreeze is relatively scattered and seasonal. The actual consumption in 2019 is about 260,000 tons, and the demand in 2020 is estimated to be about 250,000 Ton. The actual consumption of ethylene glycol for unsaturated resins in 2019 is about 400,000 tons, the production capacity is expected to reach 5 million tons in 2020, and the demand for ethylene glycol is estimated to be 400,000 to 450,000 tons. The demand for ethylene glycol for polyurethane in 2020 is estimated to be 250,000 to 300,000 tons.
In 2020, the production capacity of my country's polyester industry is expected to reach 62.8 million tons, and the output will be around 52.9 million tons, corresponding to the demand of 17,721,500 tons of glycol.
In 2019, my country's ethylene glycol self-sufficiency rate was only 45%. In 2019, new production capacity was 250,000 tons, with a total capacity of 11.031 million tons, an increase of 2.3% year-on-year; output reached 8.149 million tons, an increase of 18.3% year-on-year; capacity utilization was 73.9%, an increase of 10 percentage points year-on-year. Imported 9.947 million tons, apparent consumption 18.085 million tons, self-sufficiency rate was only 45%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points year-on-year.
In the future, the demand for ethylene glycol is expected to maintain a relatively stable growth trend. However, as the terminal clothing and home textile field enters a bottleneck period, the growth rate of ethylene glycol demand will gradually slow down. 2020 is the big year for domestic ethylene glycol production. In the first half of the year, Yankuang Rongxin, Zhejiang Petrochemical, and Hengli Petrochemical have successively put into production nearly 3 million tons/year. The obvious expansion of the supply side has put pressure on the market; while the demand side has been suppressed by the new crown pneumonia epidemic , Intensified the contradiction between supply and demand, leading to a sharp decline in market prices.
Two major problems faced by coal-to-ethylene glycol
At present, coal-based ethylene glycol has become a hot spot in the development of my country's ethylene glycol industry, but there are still some shortcomings and problems:
One is economic issues. Under the current low oil prices, the original competitive advantage of coal-to-ethylene glycol has been severely weakened.
The second is a technical problem. Coal-to-ethylene glycol technology is not yet fully mature, and some devices are unstable, and it is difficult to guarantee long-term, high-load and stable operation; product quality has a certain gap compared with ethylene method, which cannot be fully applied to polyester production, and most of them are blended and used. Under the current market environment, domestic ethylene glycol producers are in a difficult situation and must further rely on technological progress to reduce costs and increase benefits.
Compared with ethylene glycol, coal-based glycol still has the following three problems:
01 |Poor product stability. Different batches of products in the same factory will have some batches of products meeting the standards, and some batches of products will not meet the standards;
02 |When used in the production of polyester bottle flakes, the products produced from coal-to-ethylene glycol have poor light transmittance and low downstream acceptance;
03 |The production of ethylene glycol has an effect on the dyeing of some polyester filament products and is not suitable for the production of fine denier.
Therefore, so far, no polyester company has completely used coal-to-ethylene glycol as its raw material. In addition, few export polyester fiber products use coal-based ethylene glycol as raw materials. The main reason is that major export destinations such as the European Union have higher requirements for raw material indicators; in addition, the consumption of polyester bottle flakes is concentrated in drinking water bottles, etc. In the field of food, food safety requirements are higher, and coal-based ethylene glycol is basically not accepted.
Although the new coal-to-ethylene glycol production capacity is expanding relatively rapidly, because the technology in this field is in the growth stage, there is a mismatch in the market in the short term, where the growth rate of production capacity is fast but the growth rate of production is slow. The coal-to-ethylene glycol process remained stable and profitable in 2019, with an average annual profit of 753 yuan/ton. The spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on a global scale has caused an uproar in the world economy. Financial and bulk commodity markets have undergone substantial turbulence. In particular, the plunge in oil prices has brought a greater impact on the petrochemical industry chain. Under the background of low oil prices, the profit margin of coal-to-ethylene glycol will be greatly compressed, and its survival pressure will face unprecedented challenges.
Source: Chemical Network
