Fuel ethanol is expected to wean itself off food dependence

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Ethanol has the characteristics of high oxygen content and high octane number, is recognized by the world as an environmentally friendly clean fuel and oil quality improver, and has become an important development direction for vehicle clean fuels in recent years, and its promotion and use have therefore attracted much attention. Previously, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Energy Bureau, the Ministry of Finance and other 15 ministries and commissions issued the "Implementation Plan on Expanding the Production of Biofuel Ethanol and Promoting the Use of Vehicle Ethanol Gasoline" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"), requiring the basic coverage of ethanol gasoline nationwide by 2020.

However, at present, the promotion of ethanol gasoline is not smooth, and at present, only the three eastern provinces, Henan, Anhui and Tianjin provinces and cities are fully promoted, and the promotion intensity has also been adjusted from the previous "comprehensive coverage" to "encouraged but not mandatory".

According to the data, the national gasoline production in 2020 is 132 million tons, if according to the 10% addition ratio, the fuel ethanol is needed about 13.2 million tons, but the current annual output of fuel ethanol is only 3.5 million tons, and there is still nearly 10 million tons of market space.

Why is the gap in market demand so large, and the pace of fuel ethanol promotion has slowed down?

"High dependence on grain raw materials, insufficient non-grain production capacity, and high costs have become the main constraints on the development of fuel ethanol." Cao Jian, chief engineer of Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co., Ltd., pointed out that "the technical route of synthesizing ethanol from coal and steel industry exhaust gases is expected to make it possible for fuel ethanol to get rid of the shackles of raw materials and increase production capacity." ”

Raw material dependence pushes up costs

For ethanol to be applied on a large scale, tens of millions of tons of grain are needed as raw materials to meet market demand. Due to the high dependence on grain raw materials, at the end of 2020, the New Office of the State Council issued a white paper entitled "China's Energy Development in the New Era", which mentioned in the chapter "Building a Diversified and Clean Energy Supply System" that "adhere to the principle of not competing with people for grain and not competing with grain for land, and strictly controlling the expansion of fuel ethanol processing capacity".

The fuel ethanol industry, which has slowed down due to tight raw material supplies, is currently the biggest obstacle to high costs.

At present, almost all the fuel ethanol produced in China is biological ethanol, that is, most of it is fermented by plants such as aged grains and cassava. At present, grain prices continue to run high, and the production cost of ethanol has also risen. Although most fuel ethanol enterprises currently use aged grains, some private enterprises still produce with new grains and corn. Grain prices in many places in the northeast are high, and most of the enterprises that produce fuel ethanol from pure corn as raw materials are in a state of loss in 2020.

"At the price of 2760 yuan / ton of corn, it takes three tons of corn to produce one ton of ethanol, and the cost of bioethanol is as high as 8280 yuan / ton, which is higher than the market price of gasoline." Zhang Shili, deputy general manager and chief engineer of Shaanxi Xinghua Group, said.

With the gradual consumption of aged grain stocks, the raw material source of fuel ethanol has become a major problem plaguing the industry. In view of the limited capacity and cost in the short term, the technical process of the fuel ethanol industry is in urgent need of breakthroughs.

Technological innovation guarantees production capacity

According to Zhang Shili, the main business of Xinghua Group was industrial methanol. However, for the domestic methanol market with serious overcapacity, small and medium-sized coal-to-methanol projects have no advantage in investment and construction, and the industry's profitability has declined, especially in the first half of 2020, most domestic coal-to-methanol enterprises have serious losses and face transformation pressure.

In this context, the new coal-based fuel ethanol (hereinafter referred to as "coal-based ethanol") technology developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemicals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides a new possibility. According to reports, this technology uses syngas and methanol as raw materials to prepare absolute ethanol (DMTE), replacing the traditional process route of relying on grain fermentation. "The 100,000 tons/year coal-based ethanol plant currently in operation is the world's first, has entered commercial operation, and has made a profit of about 10 million yuan this year, becoming a benchmark enterprise in Shaanxi to turn losses into profits." Zhang Shili said.

In view of the successful operation of the 100,000 tons/year device, the coal-based ethanol project with an annual output of 500,000 tons is also under intensive construction.

Guo Zunli, general manager of Yushen Nenghua Company, calculated an account for the reporter. "Switching to ethanol after the transformation of the existing methanol plant can effectively improve the problem of methanol overcapacity." At the same time, DMTE technology has no acetic acid production in the production process, which requires less equipment material and can reduce investment. At present, the cost of coal-based fuel ethanol is 35,000 yuan / ton, the market price is 5,500 yuan / ton, and the yield is as high as 16.7%, which has a cost advantage. ”

In addition, the DMTE process has no waste water discharge, and the ethanol produced can effectively reduce the emission of waste such as nitrogen oxides, which has obvious environmental benefits.

Jia Yan, design manager of the coal-based ethanol project of Beiyou Engineering, said frankly that under the background of the fading advantages of grain ethanol subsidies and consumption tax reductions, the cost advantage of coal-based ethanol will be more obvious. In addition, the scale effect of coal-based ethanol has also become one of the important reasons why grain ethanol cannot "compete".

It is reported that in addition to the coal-based fuel ethanol plant production capacity of 100,000 tons, the current domestic proposed or under construction of about 13 million tons, is expected to reach 1.6 million tons in 2022.

Landing applications also require policy escort

It can be seen that coal-based fuel ethanol has both cost advantages and environmental benefits, but it is worth noting that the "Implementation Plan" stipulates that biofuel ethanol can be added to E10 gasoline. If coal-based fuel ethanol cannot enter the oil circulation field, the production capacity may not be released.

"At present, the policy only supports the direct entry of biological ethanol into oil products, and there is a 'difficult' mood in the purchase of industrial ethanol by ethanol blending plants." The experimental results show that the quality of coal-based ethanol fully meets the fuel ethanol addition standard, and even better than the national standard of E10. However, due to the lack of policy support, there are many obstacles to the promotion of coal-based fuel ethanol. Zhang Shili said.

Cao Jian expressed a similar view. He believes that coal-based ethanol, as a new type of coal chemical product, has no corresponding policy standards in processing and production, application promotion, access standards, etc., and the way out has encountered obstacles. "At present, large-scale production is still gradually exploring, the state has only introduced relevant standards for biofuel ethanol, and the relevant policies of coal-to-ethanol are still blank." The company's sales channels, blending processes, and addition access have not been determined, and entering a special market such as refined oil products cannot be completely liberalized like other bulk chemicals. In addition to technology, policy optimization is also an important part of accelerating the promotion of fuel ethanol.

In addition, the large-scale application of coal-based ethanol also faces fierce competition from methanol fuel. Although the calorific value and low toxicity of ethanol fuel are better than methanol, methanol production scale is huge, mature technology, low threshold, the current domestic methanol production capacity of 94.36 million tons / year, has reached the world's first, sufficient supply and lower cost. Recently, the state has accelerated the application of pure methanol fuel for vehicles in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Gansu and other places.

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