Petrochemical and chemical industry

 The petrochemical and chemical industry is one of the key and key industries to promote the high-quality development of my country's economy. It has a long industrial chain, a wide variety of products, and a wide range of fields. It is related to the steady development of the economy, the stability and safety of the industrial chain supply chain, green and low-carbon transformation, and the improvement of people's livelihood.

At present, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry has entered a new stage of development. It not only faces opportunities such as improvement of innovation capabilities, optimization of industrial structure and layout, improvement of energy efficiency, and digital empowerment, but also faces weak international competitiveness and inability of the existing product structure to flexibly respond to market changes. , The current technical level cannot effectively support the challenge of high-quality development. In the face of opportunities and challenges, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry must adapt to environmental changes and development trends, continuously enhance original innovation and integrated innovation capabilities, and steadily improve the stability and competitiveness of the industrial chain; accelerate industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading, and greatly enhance new chemical materials. Guarantee capabilities; optimize and adjust industrial layout, strengthen guidance and regulation, and promote high-level agglomeration development; accelerate industrial digital transformation, empower enterprise operation and management; promote green, circular and low-carbon development, and improve intrinsic safety and clean production levels.

Opportunities and challenges coexist

Emerging industries are developing rapidly, but the technical level cannot fully match the demand

There is a shortage of key core technologies, and original innovation capabilities need to be improved. Although my country's petrochemical and chemical industry has made great progress, complete sets of technologies and equipment such as ethylene and aromatics have been basically achieved independently, and technologies such as coal chemical industry have made breakthroughs, some key core technologies and downstream supporting technologies are still lacking. Taking polyethylene as an example, the dependence on external technology exceeds 90%, and the industry is in the catch-up period of relying on imported technology for large-scale investment and construction, and the original innovation ability is not strong. Generally speaking, the innovation system inside and outside the enterprise has not yet been fully formed, and the independent innovation capability is weak.

High-end products are highly dependent on external sources, and independent support capabilities need to be improved urgently. At present, my country's high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics, high-performance synthetic rubber, membrane materials, high-purity electronic chemicals, etc. have a low self-sufficiency rate, among which some high-end polyolefins such as polyolefin elastomers basically rely on imports; polycarbonate, polyoxymethylene, poly The self-sufficiency rate of some engineering plastics such as phenylene ether is lower than 50%, and structural deficiency and surplus exist at the same time. In addition, the self-sufficiency rate of raw and auxiliary materials, monomers, and advanced equipment required for the production of new materials in my country also needs to be improved.

The development of new materials is difficult. Breakthroughs often come from major discoveries in basic sciences such as physics and chemistry, and the technology owners do not transfer it to others. Domestic companies cannot meet the market's demand for high-end products. The "sunk" cost in the early stage of the new material industry is high, involving a wide range of areas and strong professionalism. There are very few institutions willing to empower new material start-ups, which restricts the development and growth of new material companies.

Carbon reduction is necessary for development, and energy efficiency and low-carbon technology levels need to be improved

Carbon emissions are on the rise with the rapid growth of production capacity. From 2010 to 2020, the average annual growth rate of carbon emissions in the petrochemical industry reached 10%, and the total carbon emissions of the four key sub-sectors/products of oil refining, ethylene, propylene, and p-xylene accounted for 55.06% of the total carbon emissions of the petrochemical industry . Since 2015, carbon emissions in the chemical industry have entered a plateau, mainly because the production capacity expansion period of key chemical products such as synthetic ammonia and caustic soda appeared before 2015. Under the "double carbon" goal, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry must take into account both development and carbon reduction. On the one hand, the demand for chemicals and new materials continues to grow rapidly, driving the rapid growth of production capacity. On the other hand, in order to achieve my country's commitment to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, the industry's green and low-carbon development is an inevitable choice.

There is still a gap between the energy consumption index and the international advanced level, and the level of energy optimization and comprehensive utilization needs to be improved. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the average energy consumption of my country's petrochemical and chemical industry continued to decline. Among them, the comprehensive energy consumption of oil refining decreased by 5%; the comprehensive energy consumption of ethylene decreased by 3%. Compared with the international advanced level, there is still a lot of room for improvement in energy consumption indicators such as catalytic cracking and catalytic reforming. In terms of energy optimization and comprehensive utilization, there is still a big gap compared with international leading companies.

There are few independent low-carbon technologies, and research needs to be accelerated. All links in the petrochemical and chemical industry chain are faced with the goal of promoting carbon emission reduction and achieving low-carbon development through technological innovation, including carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), biochemical industry, recycling of waste chemicals, and advanced energy conservation. and other low-carbon production technologies in the industry, as well as external related industry technologies such as green power supply. At present, most of my country's self-developed low-carbon technologies are in the small-scale test or demonstration stage, and there is still a gap with the industry's international leading level. The supply of green electricity requires not only a major transformation in the energy sector, but also a low-carbon transformation of all end-use energy technologies and equipment. For the petrochemical and chemical industry, electrification will be an important starting point for decarbonizing process energy, and the corresponding infrastructure, process technology, and engineering equipment need to be transformed around new electrification.

The new generation of information technology brings opportunities, but the deep integration of digitalization is still a shortcoming

The petrochemical and chemical industry is in the initial and exploratory stage of digital transformation, and there is still a lack of recognized theoretical systems and application cases. The digitalization process of enterprises lacks systematic theoretical guidance and successful experience reference, and they still face huge challenges in how to promote digitalization from pilot projects to the entire enterprise, and even at the level of industrial chain collaboration.

Core technology, software and hardware are subject to others and urgently need breakthroughs. At present, the main process technology and supporting industrial control system of my country's petrochemical industry rely on imports. my country's software development capabilities are not strong, and the level of standardization is low. Software such as engineering design, product design, process simulation, process simulation, optimization and production process control have long been monopolized by foreign countries. Therefore, it is necessary to make up for the key technologies and software and hardware shortcomings that restrict the deep integration of "two industrializations", build a new modern intelligent petrochemical plant and operation model, and promote technology research and development, engineering design, production process, operation management, supply chain and service. Digitization and intelligentization realize the transformation of the development mode from big to strong.

Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", my country's status as a major petrochemical and chemical country has been further consolidated. In 2022, my country's ethylene production capacity will increase to 21.3% of the global ethylene production capacity, and continue to maintain its status as the world's largest ethylene producer; the output of synthetic resin, synthetic rubber, and synthetic fiber has ranked first in the world for many consecutive years. With the increasingly abundant supply of products and the further acceleration of industrial structure adjustment, my country's petrochemical and chemical industry has stood at a new starting point and opened a new stage of progress from a petrochemical and chemical power to a petrochemical and chemical power.

high-quality development strategy

Enhance innovation capabilities, enhance the supply capacity and competitiveness of the industrial chain

At present, global scientific and technological innovation has entered an unprecedentedly intensive and active period, and a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is restructuring the global innovation landscape and reshaping the global economic structure. In order for the industry to grow from big to strong and achieve high-quality development, it is necessary to continuously enhance its technological innovation capabilities. Therefore, it is particularly important to improve the innovation mechanism, develop channels for scientific and technological investment, promote the deep integration of industry, academia and research, build a collaborative innovation system, and provide and reserve scientific and technological resources for the country's current and future development needs. On the one hand, it is necessary to attach importance to application-oriented basic research, establish a platform for understanding petroleum and other raw materials at the molecular level, form a systematic theory of the structural characteristics and core chemical reaction laws of hydrocarbons in raw materials, and develop highly targeted and efficient catalysts and Separation and reaction technology to achieve directional and efficient conversion of hydrocarbon molecules; breakthroughs in core technologies such as special structure reactors, high-power electric heating furnaces and other important equipment and parts manufacturing technology, sensing technology, control technology, etc., enhance innovation and development momentum, and upgrade the industry chain stability and competitiveness. On the other hand, around strategic emerging industries and market segments, through catalysts, process innovation or post-modification, etc., accelerate the high-end, differentiated and greenization of the three major synthetic materials, form a full range of product solutions, and scientifically deploy Research and development of high-tech materials such as electronic chemicals and membrane materials. Innovate capital operation and business operation models, promote structural reforms on the product supply side, and enhance product supply capabilities for high-end polymers and specialty chemicals.

Optimize and adjust the structure and layout to promote high-level industrial agglomeration and development

At present, the overall development quality of my country's petrochemical and chemical industry is not high, the industrial layout is not scientific enough, the industrial structure is mostly at the low-end, redundant construction still exists, and the industry's profitability is limited. It is urgent to change the development mode and improve the quality of development.

Structural adjustment and upgrading of existing petrochemical plants should be accelerated. On the one hand, with the goal of maximizing the creation of value for society, digital and intelligent technologies are used to further improve resource utilization, refine raw material processing routes, efficiently separate and utilize by-products, reduce energy consumption and material consumption, and improve device operation levels in an orderly manner. Promote "reducing oil and increasing specialties" and "reducing oil and increasing chemical", expand and extend the chemical industry chain, accelerate the reform process of improving quality and efficiency, and enhance the ability to flexibly match market demand. On the other hand, in line with the principle of overall planning and systematic saving, comprehensive factors from all aspects should be established to establish a reasonable index system to scientifically evaluate the mechanism for promoting the exit of inefficient and backward production capacity and the relocation of production enterprises.

Newly built petrochemical projects must have strict access conditions and overall layout. Establish a high-quality development standard system at the national level, and conduct comprehensive and systematic evaluations in terms of intrinsic safety and low-carbon environmental protection reliability, logistics and transmission convenience, product structure and technological advancement, as well as innovation capabilities, economic benefits, and international competitiveness. Access Requirement. Resources, markets, environmental capacity, logistics and other conditions should be comprehensively considered in the layout, and the cluster development advantages of upstream and downstream coordination, integration of public auxiliary projects, safety, environmental protection and emergency integration, and management service and financial integration should be fully utilized to promote the "two modernizations" Deep integration, improve operational efficiency, enhance professional management and anti-risk capabilities, and form a world-leading petrochemical industry base.