Coal Chemical Industry Breakthrough in Shanxi

Shanxi is an important coal-producing and coal-producing province and energy and chemical industry base in China, and it also shoulders the heavy responsibility of the “national resources-based economy transition comprehensive reform pilot area”. In recent years, the province's coal chemical industry has focused on the five main development lines of “fat, alcohol, alkynes, benzene, and oil”, and the industrial scale has further increased. The coal chemical industry has strongly supported and stimulated the development of related industries in our province. It not only plays an important role in ensuring the supply of agricultural chemical fertilizers and stabilizing grain growth, but also focuses on new coal chemical and fine chemical industries and actively develops modern coal chemical industry. Achieve the transformation from a coal province to a coal chemical province.

Coal chemical products are widely used in the chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, refractories industry and national defense industry. The industry chain is long and there are more than 100 kinds of products with high added value. The market demand of coal coking products is large, and it is coal for our province. The development of the chemical industry has brought tremendous business opportunities. Zheng Jin'an, chairman of Shanxi Desheng Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Desheng Co., Ltd.), is a grassroots expert and leader in the province's coal chemical industry, which is hard-working, hard working, and holding silver. Its original "One set of process can simultaneously produce high-purity thorium, phenanthrene, carbazole preparation method" to reach the international advanced level, obtained national invention patents; the company's production of fine germanium, carbazole, Philippine products sell well in domestic and foreign markets.

Domestic large-scale chemical companies such as Hebei Shuguang Chemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Longteng Chemical Co., Ltd. and Germany's Clariant Co., Ltd. have all become his "hardcore" users. When an import-export company in China purchases high-purity fine carbazole and carbazole products, it is even Giving the company the right to price... All these have earned the brand value for the company. However, as the chairman of the private company Desheng, Zheng Jin’an’s entrepreneurial experience has been arduous and treacherous. His entrepreneurial stories and the spirit of dedication to sacrifice in the coal chemical industry are admirable and impressive. Many inspirations and reflections.

Original technology reaches international advanced level

Zheng Jinan, the founder and core technology developer of Desheng, is an entrepreneur engaged in technological innovation and entrepreneurship in the early days of reform and opening up. He has successively engaged in various industries such as mechanical processing and manufacturing, carbon black production and coal tar processing, and has very keen market insight and market research and development capabilities.

In the 1990s, Zheng Jinan, a private entrepreneur from Wenshui County, a farmer, started operating coking companies. After earning “the first barrel of gold”, only Zheng Jinan, who has a junior high school education level, began to study crude rough deep processing technology. He has gradually developed a unique set of production based on the traditional fine rubbing production technology after continuous experimentation and experimentation. Technology - "composite production of helium products."

In June 1999, he commissioned the Science and Technology Committee of Shanxi Province to identify his own set of technologies. According to the appraisal opinion No. 099 of Jinkejianzi 1999, “The process combines the traditional solvent method, chemical method, distillation method, and sublimation method, and the first time a process is completed at home and abroad to produce three kinds of high-purity helium. Industrial production of phenanthrene, carbazole and carbazole products.The process is characterized by reasonable process configuration, simple process, easy operation, low production cost, and international advanced level in terms of technical level and product quality, especially their own The research and development of the “Liquor Lifter” is original and is the core of this process technology.”

The appraisal opinion also believes that “As the high-purity lanthanum, carbazole, and phenanthrene three products have good market demand and high added value, the use of this composite method to build a rough retanning industrial production plant has high economic benefits. There is basically no 'three wastes' emissions in production, with good environmental benefits."

In 2000, Zheng Jinan's "composite method technology" won the national invention patent (Patent No. ZL99122301.2). It is understood that the patented technology can increase the gray crystal carbazole in the traditional sense of purity of about 95% to white crystals with a purity of over 99%, and even break through the definition in textbooks; the purity of the produced fine cesium and industrial phenanthrenes is also improved. More than 99% of the level. In that year, the refined wolfberry, industrial Philippine and carbazole produced by Zheng Jinan were also successfully included in the Shanxi Province's key new product plan. "Zheng Jinan's 'composite method technology' is based on the original rough processing technology, using unique technology and special combination of processes to produce high-purity (99%) fine fluorene, phenanthrene, and carbazole. A unique and innovative technology, the purity of the extracted product can reach the international level, and it is the only one in the country at present, even many large state-owned enterprises do not have this technology, and its products have three major advantages: First, product purity. High-grade, less impurities and uniform particles are beneficial to the downstream customers' product yield improvement and quality improvement, so the customer's viscosity is extremely strong, such as Hebei Shuguang Chemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Longteng Chemical Co., Ltd. and Germany Clariant Company. The supply of high-purity products in the market is scarce and demand is strong, and the demand in foreign markets is increasing year by year.” Bai Yuxiang, a member of the Expert Committee of the Coal Chemical Industry Association of Shanxi Province, professor and senior engineer, believes that “Lao Zheng is more powerful than many professors and engineers. In the field of engineering and technology, engineers have a lot to do. There are only a handful of artisans. He is a big craftsman in the coal chemical industry!"

Holding a "golden rice bowl" meal

Due to the fact that lanthanum, phenanthrene, carbazole and other products are mainly used in the manufacture of pigments, paints, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, photosensitive materials, and defense industries, they have a wide range of applications. Soon, the high-purity products produced by Zheng Jinan's "composite method" technology attracted the attention of the giants of the chemical industry in developed countries such as Japan and Germany. Companies admiring the order of products came from a constant stream.

German coal chemical company Clariant Co., Ltd. is one of them. Clariant Co., Ltd. was eager to sign a product purchase agreement when Desheng Co., Ltd. was established. In addition, international large-scale chemical companies such as Ciba, U.S., BASF, U.S. VD, Sumitomo, and Nitto Denko are all customers of Desheng. At home, many fine chemical companies in Hebei, Jiangsu, Shanxi, and Shanghai are also long-term customers of Desheng.

Zheng Jinan told reporters that due to technical reasons, there are currently no other manufacturers in the country that can produce high-purity products with the same level as Desheng Company. Desheng's products are currently in short supply in the market. An import and export company in Liaoning came to Desheng to purchase products. It even stated that “the price will be determined by Desheng and how much will be produced”.

Due to Desheng's unique production technology and relatively low production costs, the product market has a very broad prospect. The market can sell more than 40,000 yuan per ton of high-purity products, the cost is even less than 20,000 yuan. The huge profit space allows Desheng to have great room for development. More crucially, at present, only Desheng Co., Ltd. has mastered this "composite method" technology, which has also become a unique technology and a leading product in the deep processing of coal chemical industry in Shanxi. A vice president of Shanxi Coking Coal Group once praised Zheng Jin'an as “Yuan Longping in the field of coal chemical industry.”

Mr. Niu Zhenkui, a member of the expert committee, professor and senior engineer of the Shanxi Coking Industry Association, told us that oyster sauce is a fraction of coal tar, which accounts for about 25% of the total coal tar, and can crystallize to produce rough 10%. According to the current production capacity of Desheng Chemicals, if it can operate at full capacity, it can process more than 10,000 tons of rough Raw Material in the whole year. This will be the largest manufacturer of high-purity fine carbazole and carbazole in China. It is understood that at present, Shanghai Baosteel's rough processing capacity is only about 6,000 tons, the purity has not reached the level of Desheng.

It is understood that coal tar, light oil, phenol oil, naphthalene oil, washing oil, oyster sauce and other components account for about 45% of the total weight, and the remaining 55% are tar pitch. At present, many coking enterprises in Shanxi Province, due to technical reasons, in the production process, coal tar light oil, phenol oil, naphthalene oil, washing oil, oyster sauce and other high value-added products or without refining, or extracted out for further Deep processing consumes a lot of resources and pollutes the surrounding environment, but it can only earn a small amount of raw material processing fees. "Shanxi is holding a golden rice bowl and is guarding such good technology but does not know how to use it. A large number of coal tar products are sold cheaply without further refinement," said Professor Niu.

The Status Quo and Breakthrough of Shanxi Coking Industry

As a member of the Expert Committee of the Shanxi Coking Industry Association, Professor Niu Zhenkui is well aware of the coking industry in the province: The total coking capacity in Shanxi Province is approximately 140 million tons, coal tar accounts for approximately 3.5% of the coking capacity, and the total capacity currently under construction is less than 90 million. Ton calculations, the province's coal tar processing capacity of about 2.77 million tons, basically matched with the province's coking production capacity. These coal tars can be used as raw materials for the processing of light oils, phenol oils, naphthalene oils, washing oils, and eucalyptus oils. Since several large-scale coking enterprises in Shanxi do not have oyster-oil deep-processing projects, these 600,000 tons of oyster sauce that could have been processed could be sold cheaply without deep processing technology. If these oyster sauces can be concentrated and processed by a certain company, this alone can increase production value by more than a few billion yuan. If you count other fractions, you can increase the output value more. And this is only one aspect.

On the other hand, due to the lack of resource integration, enterprises are pursuing their own governance. Rough and deep processing companies with unique technology such as Desheng are unable to further expand their production capacity due to insufficient funds.

According to Professor Niu, currently there are more than 100 kinds of coal tar deep-processing technologies and capabilities in the world. There are more than 100 kinds of products that can be processed in developed countries, and Russia can produce more than 80 kinds. China can only produce more than 60 kinds, and it can only be exported to Shanxi. More than 20 varieties. As a major coal province, there is still a big gap between the deep processing of coal and deep processing of coal tar in our province.

Especially since last year, affected by the international economic environment, the production of coal enterprises in our province has been greatly affected. The total coking capacity of the province has started to be less than 90 million tons, and 79 of the coking enterprises have lost more than 70%. This has a lot to do with the single product of our coal coke enterprise and the low added value of our products. Because most of our coking companies can only produce low-value primary coking products, high-value-added technologies and products are monopolized by foreign companies, and our primary coking products can only be used as raw materials for foreign coking and deep-processing companies to transfer to foreign countries. It was sold to us many times more expensive. We can only earn very low primary processing fees in the entire industry chain, but we have to pay a great price for the environment and resources. The reason is that our industry chain is too short and our coking and deep processing technologies and products are not enough.

The predicament faced by Desheng Co., Ltd. is as follows: First, due to the restructuring of the Agricultural Bank of China in 2006, the company was used as a working capital for a one-time withdrawal of more than 6 million yuan, resulting in the near-fragmentation of the company's capital chain; second, the company's relocation in 2009. The risk of advancing on the road to socialism during the expansion period has made it difficult for companies to bear a heavy debt burden. The funds raised cannot satisfy the full-load operation of the company, and the production capacity can only reach about 30%, which is far from meeting the market's short supply orders.

In recent years, the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government have proposed economic transformation and coal transformation. It is necessary to transition from the traditional primary coal mining to deep coal processing, and to develop high value-added industries such as coal power, coal chemical industry and coal machinery equipment.

Prof. Bai Yuxiang believes that in the field of coal chemical industry, it should include deep processing of coal coke by-products, that is, deep processing of coke oven gas, deep processing of crude benzene, and deep processing of coal tar. The deep processing of coal tar can be roughly divided into deep processing of coal tar fractions and centralized processing and large-scale production of coal tar fractions. It is possible to take the direction of development of fine chemicals in coal chemical industry represented by Shanxi Yongdong Chemical Industry.

It is understood that under the general background of the current downturn in the coking enterprises in the province, there are some coking companies that are developing in contradiction, which can explain some problems. Shanxi Yongdong Chemical Co., Ltd. of Yuncheng Lushan is a medium-sized and large-scale chemical environmental protection private enterprise that uses the recycling economy to manufacture and sell carbon black and coal chemical products. The company specializes in the production of special carbon black. The company has now successfully listed. This is a representative of the development direction of fine chemicals in the coal chemical industry in our province. “The main reason why Shanxi Fine Chemicals can't go out is because it is not connected to the market. There aren't enough products to come up, there aren’t enough R&D teams, and the strain is weak.” Professor Bai Yuxiang believes that Desheng has high-quality and high-quality products. The technology and capabilities of carbazole are unique in the domestic and foreign markets and there is no substitute. Products in the domestic and international markets are in short supply, and with the development of high-end products, the demand for high-purity quinones and carbazoles will continue to increase. Such a good technology and process equipment can not be operated at full capacity to achieve the highest operating efficiency, so that such a product with market prospects is plagued by financial policies and ** predicament, and the lack of 20 to 30 million in liquidity, the company back It is a pity that a heavy debt burden, missed opportunities for development, and cannot grow quickly.

Crack and break the road

Speaking of ways to break the dilemma, Prof. Bai Yuxiang and Prof. Niu Zhenkui have relatively close opinions. They all think that the government and relevant departments can take the lead in the process of reintegrating the existing coking resources in the province to carry out the fine division of labor and differential production. To avoid duplication of construction, extend the industrial chain, optimize product structure, and increase product added value.

The benefits of doing so: First, it can extend the industrial chain of the coking enterprises in the province, increase the value-added products, and comprehensively increase the market competitiveness and product competitiveness of the Shanxi coking industry; Second, it can establish a batch of coal chemical industry in Shanxi Province Those with clear division of labor, high technology, strong competitiveness, high value-added products, and broad market prospects. Third, differentiated production, avoiding redundant construction, enterprises can realize differentiated production without large amounts of basic inputs, and generate benefits; Fourth, save resources, achieve sustainable development, and avoid the waste of low-cost coking products; Fifth, convert a large number of coal chemical patent technologies such as Zheng Jinan's "composite technology production helium series products" with market demand into practical production capacity. And industrial products.

Prof. Bai Yuxiang suggested that relevant departments should encourage individuals and enterprises with funds to participate in the development and production of high-tech coal chemical products, and at the same time actively promote the cooperation between large-scale coking enterprises and characteristic deep-processing enterprises, develop together, extend the industrial chain, and expand high technology. Product production and R&D.

Specific to the future production and development of Zheng Jinan’s “composite production technology”, two professors have suggested that a number of large-scale coking companies in the province, such as Shanxi Coking and Desheng Co., Ltd., jointly set up a special high-purity refining facility. , Philippine and carbazole production enterprises, using the processing capacity of 300,000 tons of tar from Shanjiao, further deep processing of crude coke produced during the processing of coke coal tar, extracting high-purity fine fluorene, phenanthrene, and carbazole, and then after dislocation The "degassing oyster sauce" returned to Shan Jiao further carbon black products. Because the Shanjiao's oyster sauce was originally intended to be made of carbon black, the deodorization process did not affect the Shanjiao carbon black. At the same time, Desheng's equipment can also be operated at full load to produce more high-value-added coal chemical products.

Only by optimizing the allocation of resources, can we really establish a large number of coal chemical companies with core production technologies and master a large number of coal chemical products with high added value and international competitiveness. Only in this way can our coal chemical industry truly achieve transformation and upgrading. Only in this way can we fully solve the development problems of the province's coal chemical companies, achieve industrial upgrading and economic restructuring.

The “Three-Year Promotion Plan for Coal Chemical Industry in Shanxi Province (2015-2017)” recently proposed that the coal chemical industry in Shanxi Province complete the investment in fixed assets of 200 billion yuan from 2015 to 2017, with an average annual increase of 30%; Sales revenue is 160 billion yuan, an average annual increase of 20%. After the announcement of the promotion plan, it has caused a lot of reactions in coal chemical companies in Shanxi, and has also brought “dawn” and “rainfall” to the development of coal chemical companies that have faced difficulties and difficulties in recent years. The industry has stated that to achieve these goals, the coal chemical industry in Shanxi needs to provide support in areas such as equipment modernization, high-end transformation, fine chemical industry, scientific research investment, and large-scale projects in favor of government policies to help companies reduce their burden.

Zheng Jin'an, the chairman of Shanxi Desheng Chemical Co., Ltd., was even more excited after hearing the news and was full of confidence. He said: "We will use our full-time energy to diligently research and develop high-value-added products of oyster sauce and eat it to make it more convenient for the people of Shanxi." Facing the difficulties of the current development of enterprises, he hopes that the government will grant ** and ** funds. Preferential policies support the business at full capacity. Two-pany large state-owned enterprises are integrated to achieve the best production efficiency. Sanpan's original patented process technology has been transformed into a larger-scale production capacity and has played a leading role in the transformation and development of Shanxi Coal Chemical Industry.