On July 13, 2026, at the oil transmission station in Xianyang, Shaanxi, a round of applause erupted as a clear stream of green methanol flowed smoothly from the end of a pipeline 200 kilometers away into a designated storage tank. This is not an ordinary oil transportation, but the first domestic industrial trial of sequential transportation of methanol through a long-distance pipeline for finished oil products completed by the National Pipeline Network Group. This success marks a new breakthrough in China's long-distance clean energy transmission technology, as a low-cost solution has been found to the long-standing problem of West to East transmission of alcohol in the industry.

200 kilometer pipeline verification successful

This experiment relies on the national pipeline network's in-service refined oil trunk line, with a cumulative injection of 1000 cubic meters of fuel methanol. Under complex operating conditions such as simulated start stop transmission and variable flow rate, safe alternating transportation with gasoline and diesel was achieved. Actual test data shows that the length of the blending section between methanol and gasoline is strictly controlled within 1 kilometer, and the blending rate of the entire line is less than 0.8%. This outstanding performance proves the stability and reliability of the technology in various terrains such as mountains and plains, completing a complete closed-loop from theory to engineering practice.

Revitalize existing pipeline networks to reduce costs and increase efficiency

For a long time, China's methanol production capacity has been concentrated in the northwest, while the consumer market is mostly in East and South China, with high long-distance transportation costs. The biggest highlight of this experiment is leveraging the existing finished oil pipeline network. According to calculations, compared to building new dedicated pipelines, this model can reduce infrastructure investment by more than 80%, shorten the construction period by more than half, and significantly reduce land excavation and ecological disturbance. This provides an economically efficient solution to connect the green methanol production capacity in the northwest with the consumer market in the east. Keywords: Domestic new energy latest news、New energy latest reports

Expand the diversified carrying capacity of energy arteries

This experiment is an important milestone in the transformation of the national pipeline network from traditional oil and gas transportation to multi-media and multifunctional. After hydrogen and carbon dioxide, the successful transportation of methanol further enriches the list of long-distance pipeline carriers. In the future, this energy artery spanning across China will no longer be just an oil and gas pipeline network, but will also become a comprehensive new energy quality and energy network integrating multiple media such as oil and gas, green hydrogen, methanol, etc., laying a solid hardware foundation for China's low-carbon transformation of energy structure and energy security.Editor/Gao Xue