Li Mingfeng, president of the China Academy of Petrochemical Research: How to achieve the green transformation and development of refining and chemical industry

What are the challenges facing the petrochemical industry? What is the overall trend of green transformation of petroleum refining? What key technical support will the future refinery need? Sinopec magazine conducted an exclusive interview with

The petrochemical industry faces four major challenges

Reporter: You mentioned at the conference that the petrochemical industry is facing many challenges, can you elaborate on these challenges in light of the current situation at home and abroad?

Li Mingfeng: The first challenge is the rapid development of

The second challenge is the significant overcapacity of domestic refining capacity, and if the export of petroleum products is removed, the actual excess of domestic refining capacity has reached nearly 1/3

The third challenge is stricter environmental and safety standards

The fourth challenge is the constraints on the formation of carbon neutrality at peak carbon peaks

The refinery of the future is green, low-carbon and circular

It is a comprehensive refinery characterized by it

Reporter: The green transformation and development of petroleum refining has become a consensus, so what trend will this transformation and development show in the future?

Li Mingfeng: The first is the continuous improvement

The second is the imperative transformation of fuel-based refineries to chemical refineries

The third is that economically feasible energy conservation and carbon reduction will run through the whole process

Process optimization, low-energy unit catalysis technology and separation technology development based on the concept of component refining are the priorities at this stage

Reporter: There is no doubt that the blueprint of the future refinery is inseparable from strong technical support, and we need to seize the opportunity to develop in what aspects of technology to make breakthroughs?

Li Mingfeng: There are 8 aspects of key technologies that need to be breakthroughs

At the same time, in the context of double carbon, we should also pay attention to the industrial technology convergence of the two stages of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality

At present, the two most critical technologies for the transformation of refining and chemical enterprises from fuel-based to chemical-type refineries are catalytic cracking technology and hydrocracking technology

At the same time, we need to pay attention to the high-value recycling technology

In the face of such a huge amount of waste, unreasonable treatment methods can easily cause waste of resources and secondary pollution

Schematic diagram of the technical route of chemical recycling of waste plastics

Huge revenue expectations make Shell, LG, Shabiq, BP and other internationally renowned enterprises have carried out plastic recycling research, of which chemical recycling is the top priority, almost all enterprises will use waste plastic pyrolysis technology
.
This technology is suitable for mixed waste plastics with high impurity content and cannot be physically recycled, and is considered to be the future direction of technological development
.
At present, only 12% of China's waste plastics are recycled by physical methods, and there is almost no chemical method, and there is still huge room for
development.
Of course, the implementation of chemical recycling can not be separated from the support of technology, the pyrolysis of waste plastics is a very difficult process, our plastic categories are many, there are about 200 categories, both general plastics, there are special plastics, as well as engineering plastics, for refineries, their technical needs are more complex, so in this regard we also need greater technical research and development efforts and more cooperation, we come together to develop
.