The National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments jointly issued a document - New guidelines for energy conservation and carbon reduction in high energy consuming industries
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and four other departments jointly released the "Implementation Guidelines for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Upgrades in Key Areas of High Energy Consuming Industries (2022 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Guidelines"), which focuses on 17 industries such as refining, cement, steel, and non-ferrous metal smelting, and proposes the direction of energy conservation and carbon reduction upgrades and specific goals by 2025.
Around the transformation and upgrading, as well as technological breakthroughs, the "Implementation Guidelines" propose that for enterprises with energy efficiency at the benchmark level, especially below the benchmark level, actively promote the advanced technology and equipment proposed in this implementation guideline, strengthen energy system optimization, waste heat and pressure utilization, pollutant reduction, comprehensive utilization of solid waste, and public auxiliary facility renovation, and improve the green level of production processes and technical equipment. At the same time, we will promote the research and development of green common key technologies, cutting-edge leading technologies, and related facilities and equipment for energy conservation, pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and synergistic efficiency enhancement.
Taking the refining industry as an example, data shows that refining energy consumption is mainly composed of fuel gas consumption, catalytic coking, steam consumption, and electricity consumption. As of the end of 2020, about 25% of China's refining industry had energy efficiency better than the benchmark level, and about 20% had energy efficiency lower than the benchmark level.
Li Yongliang, Deputy Director of the Industrial Development Department of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, stated that the refining industry is the leader of the petrochemical industry, and energy consumption mainly faces problems such as a large proportion of small and medium-sized equipment, low thermal efficiency of heating furnaces, insufficient optimization of energy systems, and high energy consumption of power consuming equipment. There is great potential for energy-saving and carbon reduction transformation and upgrading. In this regard, the Implementation Guidelines have determined the transformation and upgrading path of the refining industry, such as strengthening the processing of inferior heavy oil raw materials such as residue slurry bed hydrogenation, advanced separation and molecular refining, and the development and application of deep refining technologies; Accelerate the popularization and promotion of advanced control technology, cold regeneration agent circulation catalytic cracking technology, high-efficiency air preheater, etc.
In terms of specific goals, the Implementation Guidelines specify that by 2025, the proportion of production capacity above the energy efficiency benchmark level in the refining industry will reach 30%, and production capacity below the energy efficiency benchmark level will be accelerated to exit. The industry will have significant energy-saving and carbon reduction effects, and the ability for green and low-carbon development will be greatly improved.
As an important supplement to petrochemicals, modern coal chemical industries such as coal to methanol are effective ways to promote clean and efficient utilization of coal. The "Implementation Guidelines" released this time propose that by 2025, the proportion of production capacity above the energy efficiency benchmark level in the coal to methanol, coal to olefin, and coal to ethylene glycol industries will reach 30%, 50%, and 30% respectively, and the production capacity below the benchmark level will be basically zero.
Modern coal chemical industry uses coal as the main raw material, and its production process is based on chemical reactions, with a large amount of material changes and energy exchange. The technology level is high and the process flow is complex. "Han Hongmei, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, believes that the" Implementation Guidelines "propose to accelerate the research and development of high-performance composite new catalysts, promote the demonstration and application of independent large-scale air separation, large-scale air compression booster, and large-scale coal gasification furnaces, and promote the development and application of cutting-edge technologies such as one-step synthesis of olefins from synthetic gas, coupling of green hydrogen and coal chemical projects. These measures will help break through the limitations of existing technological conditions, promote process optimization, reduce consumption, and make material and energy utilization more reasonable, fundamentally accelerating energy conservation and carbon reduction.
In order to better promote the energy-saving and carbon reduction transformation and upgrading of key areas, the "Implementation Guidelines" propose to promote agglomeration development, guide backbone enterprises to leverage their advantages in capital, talent, technology, etc., voluntarily and independently carry out mergers and reorganizations in this field through superior and inferior methods, capacity replacement, etc., concentrate on planning and constructing large-scale and integrated production bases, improve the level of process equipment and energy utilization efficiency, and build a structurally reasonable, competitively effective, standardized and orderly development pattern. Blind expansion of production capacity and low-level repetitive construction under the guise of mergers and reorganizations are not allowed. In addition, we will accelerate the elimination of outdated production capacity, and promote the accelerated exit of those with energy efficiency below the benchmark level and difficult to achieve above the benchmark level through transformation and upgrading within the prescribed time limit through market-oriented and legal means.
Han Hongmei believes that in specific practice, policy coordination and guarantee should be strengthened, and enterprises should be guided to actively adopt advanced and applicable technology and equipment to accelerate energy-saving and carbon reduction transformation and upgrading, ensuring the scientific, orderly, and timely achievement of the work goals proposed in the Implementation Guidelines.
Information source: People's Daily
