On the evening of March 23, CCTV's "Focus Interview" program focused on new quality productivity, reporting on Shenghong Petrochemical's carbon-negative industry chain in 4 minutes and 47 seconds.
The following is the main content of the report:
Not long ago, Shenghong Petrochemical, located in the Lianyungang Petrochemical Industrial Base in Jiangsu Province, announced the successful commissioning of its "Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization - Green Methanol - New Energy Materials" production line, which successfully produced high-quality ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate, among other new energy materials. These materials can be used not only in the manufacture of lithium batteries, but also have wide applications in cutting-edge fields such as renewable energy, 5G technology, integrated circuits, pharmaceuticals, and novel additives.
Li Xiujie, deputy general manager of the Enterprise Development Department of Shenghong Petrochemical Industry Group, said, "All of the (new energy materials) we produce have reached the high purity of electronic grade, with electronic grade products exceeding 99% purity. This is to meet market demand and break the foreign technology and product monopoly, which are both very important”.
Staff told reporters that the main raw material for producing these high-end new energy materials is not actually high-end; it is high-quality methanol produced by recycling and capturing carbon dioxide from industry, which is then used to produce high-quality new energy materials.
Currently, most companies in the chemical industry extract methanol from fossil fuels and then use it to produce downstream products. Overall, this involves the extraction and utilization of carbon from fossil raw materials, which is then released into the atmosphere. In contrast, Shenghong's carbon dioxide-to-methanol project utilizes internationally leading green technology to transform carbon dioxide from waste gas into high-end new materials, narrowing the domestic production gap in the high-end market and enhancing the company's core competitiveness. In September 2021, Shenghong Petrochemical partnered with leading international companies to jointly develop a "150,000-tonne-level carbon dioxide capture and comprehensive utilization project," and pioneered the construction of a carbon capture and utilization—green methanol—new energy and new materials industrial chain in China. This aims to achieve carbon reduction goals and promote the revitalization of the traditional petrochemical industry. After two years of arduous research, the 100,000-tonne-per-year methanol production project officially commenced operation, laying the foundation for the subsequent production of other products from green methanol. The project is designed to actively absorb 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and convert 100,000 tonnes into methanol annually. Just like planting trees, this device "simulates photosynthesis" and has a carbon dioxide recovery and conversion rate of nearly 100%, indirectly reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 550,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to planting 37,000 hectares of forest.
