In April 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping's visit to Zhejiang pointed out the direction for the transformation of many traditional industries. At that time, he emphasized for the first time the need to accelerate the layout of strategic emerging industries and future industries such as digital economy, life and health, and new materials. Few people realize that the petrochemical industry, as the cornerstone of the industrial economy, is an indispensable key player in this future race.

According to the Implementation Opinions on Promoting Innovative Development of Future Industries jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and seven other ministries, future industries are forward-looking emerging industries driven by cutting-edge technologies, focusing on six major tracks: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space, and future health. In this grand map, the petrochemical industry is not only a participant, but also a supporter.

Full coverage of the track

In the field of future materials, new chemical materials and high-performance carbon fibers are of paramount importance; In the future energy, hydrogen energy, biomass energy, and new energy storage technologies cannot be separated from the support of petrochemical technology. Even seemingly unrelated tracks to the chemical industry rely on the support of the petrochemical industry everywhere. The 6G communication and quantum computing in future information require high-end electronic chemicals that are ultra pure and ultra clean; The genetic technology and biosynthesis in future health require specialized detection reagents and medical polymer materials; Future manufacturing and aerospace in future space, as well as deep well drilling at tens of thousands of meters, require special sealing and extreme environmental resistant materials to provide protection. It can be said that without functional chemicals and specialized materials, these cutting-edge industries would be impossible to talk about.

New biological opportunities

Faced with the reality of limited fossil resources and the challenges of climate crisis, the petrochemical industry is also undergoing a profound green transformation. This year's Chinese government work report has listed biomanufacturing as a key new driving force for cultivation. The use of renewable biomass resources to replace oil and coal has become a consensus in the industry for carbon reduction. Although most bio based products are currently difficult to compete with traditional petroleum based products in terms of cost, with the acceleration of technological innovation, bio manufacturing is increasingly becoming a new path for the petrochemical industry to enter the future. This is not only a replacement of raw materials, but also a reconstruction of the entire industrial logic.

Traditional non backward

Looking back at history, since the Second Industrial Revolution, the petrochemical industry has contributed to the economic takeoff of countries such as the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, from the rise of synthetic materials to the transformation of petrochemicals. Nowadays, although basic chemicals are often classified as traditional industries, they are still incubators for high-end manufacturing. Many high-end new products often originate from the upgrading of basic products, such as the transformation of new energy battery materials from phosphate fertilizer enterprises, and the innovation and quality improvement of photovoltaic film materials from polyethylene enterprises. If there were no technological breakthroughs in polyimide film, the latest foldable screen phones on the market would not be possible.

As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, the degree of technological breakthroughs largely determines the speed and depth of future industrial development. For China, the petrochemical industry is not only an important component of the future industry, but also the cornerstone on which it relies for survival. Without this foundation, future industries will become castles in the air. Only by strengthening original innovation and high-level technological self-reliance, conquering key core technologies, can China's petrochemical industry continue to provide a continuous source of power for high-quality development on the six major future tracks.Editor/Yang Meiling