August 23, 2010 Shanxi News Shaixi Daily
Shanxi thrives on coal, but suffers from coal. At the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, transformation and development has become a realistic choice for energy enterprises.
From pollution discharge to clean use, from extensive operation to intensive development, from high carbon industry to low carbon path, Shanxi energy enterprises are committed to a new way of transformation and development in line with the provincial conditions.
The city is green after rain. At the beginning of August, the reporter walked into Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical Insudtry Co., Ltd. in the Economic development Zone of Jiaocheng, and was immediately attracted by this “bright spot” : the green and clean production plant, the pipeline interlaced circulation treatment tower, the most exciting thing is that it has the proprietary technology in the forefront of the coal chemical industry.
After entering the coal chemical industry for 8 years, Hongte has occupied the commanding height of coal tar processing industry and become one of the enterprises with the largest scale, longest industrial chain and deepest processing depth in the same industry in China. It is the only enterprise that can industrially produce coal needle coke in China, with 19 proprietary technologies. The processing depth and comprehensive technical level of coal chemical products are 3-5 years ahead of the domestic industry.
“Hongte company’s development of coal chemical industry is pioneering, represents a direction”.
This direction, for our province’s energy enterprises how to “make good use of coal, do a good job in the coal extension development of this article”, undoubtedly has a kind of inspiration and leading role.
Discovery is development
When enterprises in the province were keen to invest in coal mines and coking plants, Hongte discovered the value of coal tar and the broad market prospect of needle coke. Discovery, let Hongte successfully out of a development of coal chemical transformation path.
Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. was settled in Jiaocheng County in 2001, when the global demand for coal coke increased sharply, the price of coal coke soared, coking enterprises in the province crowded into the period. But Hongte company did not follow the wind to build a coking plant, but the main business locked in the deep processing of coal tar, investment 300 million yuan, 3 years of research and development of coal needle coke.
Coal tar is the by-product of coking, and coal tar processing is the downstream industry of coking. For a long time, in addition to a small part of the province’s coal tar preliminary processing into coal asphalt, rubber raw materials, most of what no industrial use, some enterprises do not configure the coal tar recovery device. Although our province has been positioned as a base of heavy energy and chemical industry for a long time, the situation of heavy energy and light chemical industry has not been improved, and the conversion of resources remains in the primary stage. Shanxi coal chemical industry “only coke does not change” for the industry distressed.
However, it is coal tar such a “waste”, should be Hongte as a promising treasure, which at that time many people do not understand. With investment cycle short, quick effect, large profits of coking projects do not do, but to chew high technical content, large investment, returns are not sure of coal tar deep processing projects, especially the countries invest a lot of manpower and material resources and financial resources research and development for more than 20 years has not been entered the industrialization production of needle coke project, business investment is likely to draw water with a sieve. At the time, Hongte’s development options were not very promising.
Wu Liansheng, chairman of Hongte, does not think so. Before investing in coal tar processing projects, he had conducted extensive exchanges with domestic coal chemical industry experts and consulted a large number of domestic and foreign industry materials. He found that 70% of the world’s coal tar production is in China, and coal tar can extract about 200 compounds, many of which are difficult to get in the petrochemical industry. For China, a country rich in coal and little in oil, the development of coal tar deep processing is promising. Shanxi coal tar production accounts for about 1/4 of the country, and at the beginning of the century, most enterprises have not realized the industrial value of coal tar, then coal tar per ton price is only four or five hundred yuan. Based on the coal tar resources, cost and advantage of late development, Shanxi has great potential to develop coal tar deep processing.
The discovery of Hongte makes it the first to enter shanxi coal tar deep processing industry, and relying on r&d, equipment, technology and other advantages, become the leader in Shanxi and even the domestic industry.
In 2003, the reporter interviewed in Lyuliang city, had handed in the city economic development zone. At that time, Hongte was still in the key stage of needle coke technology, coal tar deep processing has not formed industrial products. Hongte, comparing with unusually prosperous coking enterprises in the development zone, is particularly cold. Some coking business operators think that Hongte in empty concept, needle coke industrial production is just “pie in the sky”.
But the scene reversed in late 2008. Affected by the international financial crisis, the international demand for coal coke decreased sharply, the production and operation of coking enterprises in the province is difficult, have fallen into a state of production and semi-production. Jiaocheng economic development zone of coking enterprises, for a time in cold cold chariot. In stark contrast, instead of stopping production, the company is busier: at the south gate, there is a fleet of oil tanks more than a kilometre long waiting to sell coal tar; in front of the north gate is a long line of containers eager to buy products; in the workshop, production equipment is running at full capacity, technicians and workers work overtime to produce…
In 2009, under the circumstance of large fluctuations in the coal and coke industry and sharp drop in sales, Hongte still maintained the momentum of growth. In that year, the total amount of tar processing was 345,000 tons, the total industrial output value reached 1.212 billion yuan, the sales revenue reached 906 million yuan, and the tax was 64.62 million yuan.
This reversal comes from the breakthrough of needle coke core technology. A core technology creates an industry.
Innovation is development.
Hongte adheres to independent innovation, and the industrial production of needle coke has ended the history of “only coke but not coking” in Shanxi, filled the blank of the industrial production of coal measure needle coke in China, and broken the long-term monopoly of foreign countries in this field. Innovation, let Hongte stand in the forefront of the world.
Needle coke is a new type of carbon material developed vigorously in 1970s. It is mainly used to produce UHP graphite electrode for electric furnace steel-making, used as high energy neutron deceleration material in atomic reactor, and also used in rocket technology.
Needle coke can be divided into petroleum series and coal series according to different raw materials. Since the industrial production of needle coke in the 1970s, only the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan have mastered the production technology of coal needle coke, and only Japan can produce coal series needle coke. The annual production of needle coke in the world is maintained at about 1 million tons, all of which are monopolized by the above-mentioned countries.
Needle coke has been listed as a national key scientific research project since the sixth Five-year Plan period. Shanxi Coal Chemical Institute, Baosteel Group, Anshan Coastal Chemical industry and other units have done a lot of exploration on technology research and development and industrial production of coal needle coke, but have not achieved a breakthrough in industrial production technology. At present, the annual demand for needle coke in China is about 200,000 tons. With the growth of electric furnace steel-making capacity in China, the market demand for needle coke will continue to expand.
In the second half of 2002, Hongte began to invest in the research and development of needle coke industrial device. They have signed long-term technology research and development cooperation agreements with 12 research institutes including Nanjing University, Zigong Carbon Black Research and Design Institute of China Pacific Petroleum Corporation and 6 big users, establishing a fast and sensitive market response mechanism. In 2004, the company set up the needle coke project headquarters, set up a R&D institution in Shanghai, large-scale introduction of 32 domestic coal chemical industry technical experts, and set up a coal series needle coke research and development team. In this team, two people receive special allowances from the State Council. This large number of top talents in the domestic industry has become the source of wisdom for enterprises to quickly occupy the commanding heights of the industry technology.
July 26, 2006 is an epoch-making day in the development history of Hongte Company. On this day, Hongte independent research and development, with independent intellectual property rights of annual output of 50,000 tons of coal needle coke industrial production device was put into operation. After more than 100 industrial trial production tests, in August 2007, through Shanxi Coal Chemical Institute, Jilin Carbon Group and other units of testing, all physical and chemical indicators have reached the level of similar products in Japan. In 2008, the needle coke products of Hongte were successfully applied to the 3# electric furnace of Wuyang Iron and Steel Company, the most “harsh” domestic steel-making conditions; many steel-making enterprises have given high evaluation after using Hongte needle coke, “oxidation resistance, steel-making unit consumption and foreign imported electrode level”. The sales price is 4000-5000 yuan lower than similar imported products.
This means that the quality of coal needle coke produced by Hongte has reached the world’s advanced level, and can completely replace imports. At the same time, ended the history of Shanxi coal chemical industry “only coke”, shortened the gap between China’s coal tar deep processing technology and the world’s advanced level, broke the years of China’s needle coke completely dependent on imports.
Not only that, with the advent of new products such as coal needle coke, the company has 19 proprietary technologies such as industrial production process of coal series needle coke, and has been identified as the first batch of national high-tech enterprises in our province. According to Hongte Yucai Li, chief engineer of the company, Hongte, are not satisfied with their current needle coke production scale, in October this year, Hongte’s second phase of 100,000 tons of needle coke project installation will be completed and put into operation, the company coal needle coke production capacity will reach 150,000 tons, the production scale would be the world’s first, domestic supply of needle coke will greatly ease the tension. (continued)