On the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert and the energy hinterland of the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River in Yulin, Shaanxi, a super project with a total investment of over 79.8 billion yuan is accelerating its rise, which is the Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Coal Comprehensive Utilization Project. As one of the 102 major projects in the national "14th Five Year Plan", this mega project covering 38 sets of process equipment and spanning from coal liquefaction to new materials is not only a new landmark in Yulin's energy industry, but also reshaping China's modern coal chemical industry's high-end, diversified, and low-carbon development path, becoming a benchmark model for energy central enterprises to implement national strategies.

The full chain fission of a piece of coal

Unlike the "single point breakthrough" of a single coal chemical project, the core competitiveness of Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Project lies in its "circular thinking" and "innovative genes" that run through the entire chain. From the perspective of project layout, it is precisely based on Yulin's high-quality coal resource endowment, and has built an integrated industrial system of "coal oil chemical new materials new energy", breaking the pain points of traditional coal chemical industry's "fragmented resource utilization and single product structure", realizing the deep transformation of coal from "fuel" to "raw material" and "material", and enabling "one piece of coal" to complete the full chain fission from basic energy to high value-added products.

Technological breakthroughs break through industry bottlenecks

From the core of the project, technological innovation is the key support for it to stand at the forefront of the industry. As a demonstration project created by the National Energy Group, the project has gathered a number of internationally leading core technologies, among which the "2 MW/10 MWh carbon based high-temperature thermal storage steam system" has passed the achievement appraisal of the China Coal Industry Association and been rated as an international leading level; The world's first 100 ton air-water photocatalytic ammonia synthesis pilot plant is a revolutionary innovation in normal temperature and pressure catalytic reactions, breaking the technological bottleneck of conventional coal chemical high-temperature and high-pressure processes, and achieving multiple breakthroughs in reducing carbon emissions, lowering costs, and shortening processes. At the same time, the project also innovatively applies key technologies such as new generation coal direct liquefaction and oil alcohol co refining, promoting the deep integration of coal chemical industry and coal to oil technology, and achieving a qualitative leap in the comprehensive utilization efficiency of coal.

The coupling of environmental protection and new energy

In today's era where green and low-carbon have become the main theme of industrial development, the "green background" of this super project is also remarkable. In the total investment of the project, environmental protection investment reached 6.228 billion yuan, accounting for 7.8%. A comprehensive environmental protection governance system has been established, covering all types of pollutant treatment facilities such as waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste, and strictly implementing the requirements for water resource protection and environmental risk prevention in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River. More noteworthy is that the project deeply explores the coupled development path of coal chemical industry and new energy, relying on the abundant sunshine resources in Yulin area to build a distributed photovoltaic system, realizing green electricity to green hydrogen, combining high flash gas waste heat recovery and ammonia nitrogen condensate resource utilization technology, which not only solves the environmental protection problem but also improves energy utilization efficiency, providing a practical solution for the industry's green transformation that can be referenced.

From the perspective of industrial value, the implementation of the Shenhua Yulin Circular Economy Project not only promotes the improvement of national energy security capabilities, but also leads the product upgrading and structural optimization of the coal chemical industry. The project takes the 2.16 million tons/year direct coal liquefaction plant as the main line to create a diversified product matrix, covering energy products such as coal based special fuels (coal based jet fuel, coal based diesel), gasoline, as well as high-end chemical products such as polycarbonate, coal based biodegradable materials (PBC, PBS), EPDM rubber, among which coal based special fuels have successfully supported the first flight of the Long March 12 carrier rocket. Coal based diesel can adapt to extreme cold, high heat and other special environments, and the performance of high value-added products has reached the international advanced level. This transformation from bulk generic products to high-end customized products has broken the dependence of China's high-end chemical materials on imports, extended the "oil chemical new materials" industry chain, and effectively fulfilled the responsibility of the National Energy Group as the leader of the coal based oil chemical new materials industry chain.

In the future, with the comprehensive production and continuous optimization of the project, it will further expand the industrial advantages of China's modern coal chemical industry, promote the deep development of the industry towards high-end, diversified, and low-carbon, provide solid support for the realization of the country's "dual carbon" goals and energy structure transformation, and contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to the global clean and efficient utilization of coal.Editor/Yang Meiling