On September 27, the signing ceremony of the carbon dioxide to green methanol project between Jiangsu Sierbang Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Shenghong Group, and Icelandic Carbon Recycling International was held in Beijing. This marks the official launch of the world’s first “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization – Green Methanol – New Energy Materials” industrial chain project jointly built by China and Iceland.
The first phase of the project has an investment of nearly RMB 300 million and is expected to be put into operation in 2022. The project can recover carbon dioxide from industrial tail gas, produce photovoltaic grade EVA resin, creating a new green path of “turning carbon into treasure.
The designed carbon dioxide recovery scale of the project is 150,000 tons/year, which is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emission of 15 large petrochemical units in one year. About 20,000 tons of photovoltaic grade EVA resin can be produced from the recovered carbon dioxide, which can produce 50 million square meters of photovoltaic film. After all used for photovoltaic power generation, the installed capacity can reach 5GW, and 6-9 billion kwh of electricity can be generated in a year, which is equivalent to the power generation capacity of two million KW thermal power plants in a year.
The project can achieve 100% carbon dioxide recovery and conversion rate through technological innovation. It can not only achieve the carbon reduction goal, but also change the source of downstream photovoltaic raw materials. Some raw materials that used to be produced from coal chemical industry can now be transformed directly from carbon dioxide, which will not only be green at the source, but also greatly promote the transformation of clean energy in China.
The project’s “Simulated Photosynthesis” has a stronger and more effective ability to absorb carbon dioxide. It can directly and actively absorb 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year and indirectly reduce carbon dioxide by 550,000 tons/year, equivalent to 37,000 hectares of forest planting area, which has good social and ecological benefits.
As the execution entity of the project, Sierbang Petrochemical operates the world’s largest single 2.4 million MT/year alcohol-based multiple chemical project, mainly using the international leading methanol to olefin process. It is a core supplier of photovoltaic grade EVA, acrylonitrile, MMA, EO, etc., and its production capacity and output are among the top in the country.
In the past, due to plant capacity, process technology and other reasons, China’s photovoltaic grade EVA capacity was insufficient, and the import dependence was as high as 70%, which greatly affected the photovoltaic industry. Through special technical research, the self-developed photovoltaic grade EVA of Sierbang has achieved a major breakthrough in the improvement of key indicators such as crystal point and melt index, and the technical process has reached the international advanced level and stable mass production.
After the project is completed, the green methanol will be transformed into intermediate raw materials such as ethylene through MTO (methanol to olefin) process and transported to downstream units to produce photovoltaic grade EVA and other new energy materials, so as to create the world’s first low-carbon recycling green industrial chain of “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization – Green Methanol – New Energy Materials”.
In addition to making carbon dioxide into photovoltaic materials, Sierbang Petrochemical also plans to convert carbon dioxide into food grade carbon dioxide and new energy battery electrolyte solvents, with a scale of one million tons, so as to provide effective assistance for China’s development of new energy industry and reduction of carbon emissions.
Source: Shenghong Group