Promoting energy saving and consumption reduction in soda industry by technological innovation

　　This year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments jointly issued the Implementation Guide for Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction in Key Areas of High Energy Consumption Industries (2022 Edition) (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Guide"), and put forward more specific work directions and specific targets for energy saving and carbon reduction in 2025 around many industries such as oil refining, ethylene, PX, synthetic ammonia, modern coal chemical industry, caustic soda and soda ash.

　　After years of development, China’s soda production technology has reached the global leading level, and China is also the largest producer and consumer of soda in the world. As a chemical raw material with high energy consumption, what is the current energy consumption level and production situation of soda ash industry? What are the difficulties in promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction? Is there room for technical improvement? With these questions, China Petroleum & Chemical magazine interviewed Dou Jinliang, Secretary General of China Soda Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as the Association).

　　China Petroleum and Chemical Industry: What is the basic situation of soda ash industry layout, production and energy consumption at present?

　　Dou Jinliang: The production methods of soda ash include ammonia-alkali method (including underground circulating co-production method), combined alkali method and natural alkali method. The ammonia-alkali process is mainly distributed in some coastal provinces and Qinghai, and the combined alkali process has production enterprises in many inland provinces, mainly in Henan, Jiangsu, Hubei and Sichuan, and the natural alkali process is mainly distributed in Henan and Inner Mongolia. In 2021, the output of soda ash in China was 28.73 million tons, an increase of 860,000 tons or 3.09% compared with 2020. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, with the progress of soda production technology and the continuous improvement of energy-saving and environmental protection technology, the energy consumption per unit product of soda ash in the whole industry has decreased year by year, and the energy consumption per unit product of soda ash in most enterprises has been better than the advanced value index of "Energy Consumption Quota for soda ash per unit product" (GB 29140-2012).

　　China Petroleum and Chemical Industry: According to the data mentioned in the Implementation Guide, 36% of the soda ash industry is better than the benchmark level, and about 10% of the production capacity is lower than the benchmark level. Compared with other industries vertically, this figure is relatively good. What do you think are the key points and difficulties of energy saving and carbon reduction in soda ash industry?

　　Dou Jinliang: The focus of energy saving and carbon reduction in soda ash industry is to guide the industry to upgrade and transform energy saving and carbon reduction in accordance with the requirements of the Implementation Guide jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments, strengthen technical research, and promote the application of existing energy saving and carbon reduction technologies.

　　The difficulty is that after years of development, China’s soda production technology has reached the advanced or leading level in the world. After years of popularization and application of energy-saving and carbon-reducing technology, the energy consumption level of most soda enterprises has been very low, and the space for energy-saving and carbon-reducing has been limited. Coupled with the further improvement of environmental protection requirements, the energy consumption of advanced enterprises may increase instead of decreasing.

　　China Petroleum and Chemical Industry: By 2025, the production capacity with energy efficiency lower than the benchmark level will be withdrawn from the market. Will this have an impact on the industrial layout? What measures will the association take to push this part of production capacity out of the market as soon as possible?

　　Dou Jinliang: By 2025, the production capacity with energy efficiency lower than the benchmark level will be withdrawn from the market, which will have a certain impact on the soda ash industry, but it will have little impact. According to the industry situation, the enterprises whose energy efficiency is lower than the benchmark level are small and medium-sized enterprises. The Association will promote these enterprises to carry out energy-saving and carbon-reducing technological transformation. It is believed that after three years of technological transformation, the energy efficiency of these enterprises will reach or exceed the benchmark level and strive not to withdraw from the market. Enterprises that fail to meet the requirements of the benchmark level by 2025 will be advised to withdraw from the market as soon as possible.

　　China Petroleum and Chemical Industry: According to the interpretation of the Implementation Guide, "strengthening the frontier to lead technology development and cultivating benchmark demonstration enterprises", what measures will the Association take to promote and implement this?

　　Dou Jinliang: According to the requirements of the Implementation Guide jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments, the Association will promote the industry to strengthen the development and application of new cutting-edge energy-saving technologies such as one-step heavy ash technology, heavy alkali centrifuge filtration technology, heavy alkali pressurized filtration technology and rotary dry ammonium furnace technology; Accelerate the popularization of green technology and the application of major technical equipment; Promote the utilization of waste heat and pressure and optimize the utilization of raw materials for production; Further increase the proportion of natural alkali production capacity and adjust the industrial structure. By promoting the development and application of energy-saving technologies, we will cultivate benchmark demonstration enterprises, further reduce the energy consumption per unit product of soda ash, and promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industry.

　　China Petroleum and Chemical Industry: In view of these cutting-edge technologies mentioned in the Implementation Guide, please specifically introduce what innovative breakthroughs these technologies have in energy saving and carbon reduction? What can be done to help soda enterprises to save energy and reduce carbon?

　　Dou Jinliang: These cutting-edge technologies are all new technologies being developed by the industry that can save energy. In the future, soda ash industry will set a benchmark enterprise by promoting the application of these new technologies. Now mainly around these technologies to make an introduction:

　　One-step heavy ash technology is a technology that directly produces low-salt heavy soda ash by wet calcination of the intermediate product heavy alkali in the production process.

　　Pressurized filtration technology of heavy alkali is to filter heavy alkali by pressurized filtration, which can reduce the water content of heavy alkali and the salt content of soda ash, and further save energy and reduce consumption. Another advantage of this technology is that due to the use of pressurized filtration, the amount of tail gas is very small, the treatment is convenient, and it has the advantage of environmental protection. It is an energy-saving and environmental protection technology.

　　Rotary dry ammonium furnace technology uses rotary furnace to dry ammonium chloride, which can reduce steam consumption, and at the same time, compared with the existing fluidized bed drying, the amount of dried tail gas is greatly reduced, and the tail gas treatment capacity is small, which has more environmental protection advantages. It is also an energy-saving and environmental protection technology.

　　The filtration technology of heavy alkali centrifuge means that the crystal slurry taken out of carbonization tower is directly filtered by centrifuge, which can reduce the moisture content of heavy alkali, reduce the amount of alkali return and save the consumption of calcination steam, thus achieving energy saving and consumption reduction.

　　In the next step, soda ash industry should strengthen technical research, develop new energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies and put them into application, realize technological transformation and upgrading, promote industrial agglomeration development, and eliminate enterprises that can not meet the energy efficiency benchmark level.