Excess ethane in the United States
According to China Chemical News, only a few years ago, the production of natural gas condensate (NGL) in North America was not optimistic. Now, however, this situation has been completely overturned. Influenced by the shale gas revolution in the United States, the output of NGL in the United States has increased strongly, which directly promotes the growth of ethane production. At present, the demand for ethane in American petrochemical market has been saturated, and the situation of excess supply of ethane is becoming more and more serious. Data show that the current production capacity of ethane in the United States is about 1.1 million barrels per day (150,000 tons per day), and the surplus is about 300,000 barrels per day (40,000 tons per day). At present, most of the excess ethane can only be burned or injected underground.
The main use of ethane is as raw material for olefin production. The main component of the product is ethylene, followed by propylene, butadiene, benzene and other by-products.
Cheng Guanghui, deputy general manager of Shandong Qilong Chemical Co., Ltd., pointed out that the United States is a mature economy, and the demand for ethylene is growing slowly. If the excess ethane is used to produce ethylene, the production of ethylene in the United States will be seriously surplus. At the same time, because of the high demand for long-distance ethylene transportation, the investment in the plant will be biased. As a result, producers are more likely to export ethane in large quantities directly.
Mikhail Yuriev, chairman of Ethane Corporation of the United States, said in an interview with reporters that the current annual production of ethane in the United States is 6 million tons. Some are exported to Europe, about 1 million tons a year, for Scotland, and the other is about 4 million tons a year. In the next few years, ethane production in the United States will reach 30 million tons. Therefore, new ethane must be exported in order to ensure the balance of domestic supply and demand. Producers are looking for a target market for ethane globally.
According to Charles Middot Bustani, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, there are no policy restrictions on ethane exports in the United States. That is to say, the export of ethane in the United States does not require the export certificate of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). In addition, compared with LNG, the boiling point of ethane is about - 90 C, which makes it easier to transport, and the investment and construction cycle of related infrastructure such as liquefied factories, receiving terminals and transport ships are lower.
China's market is the best
& We hope that China will become the largest buyer of the United States in the next few years. & Mikhail Yuriev told China Chemical Daily directly.
Reporters found that the main reason why the industry is optimistic about the Chinese market is that China is vigorously developing clean energy to ease the pressure of air pollution. The pollutant emission of ethane is almost the same as that of natural gas, which belongs to clean energy. Moreover, the calorific value of ethane is higher than that of natural gas, which has a bright future in the automotive gas market, especially for ships in Neijiang and Neihu lakes. Second, China's ethylene production in 2015 was close to 20 million tons, but still could not meet the market demand. Ethylene external dependence was still more than 45%, and its support capacity was low. Therefore, an important task facing China's ethylene industry is to expand the industrial scale to a certain extent. Third, ethane raw materials have strong price competitiveness. In terms of production cost, the cash cost of naphtha-based ethylene production is about $1200 per ton, while the cash cost of ethyl ethylene production in the United States is about $500 per ton, which is only about 40% of the former.
Cheng Guanghui pointed out that cost analysis of the three olefin production routes was carried out on a scale of 1 million tons per year: ethane cracking (including ethane + propane mixed cracking), with an investment of 2.6 billion to 3 billion yuan; methanol (coal) to olefin, with an investment of about 4.8 billion yuan; naphtha cracking, with an investment of about 3.8 billion yuan. It can be seen that the investment of ethane to ethylene is the least, the cost of raw materials is the lowest, and the pollutants are the least; the investment of coal to olefins is the highest, the cost of raw materials is the middle, and the pollution is the most serious; the investment of naphtha to olefins is between the two, the cost of raw materials is the highest, and the pollution is between the two. Because of the low price of ethane, it is impossible for US naphtha to shake the status of ethane as the main pyrolysis raw material in the near future.
For exporting ethane to the Chinese market, Mikhail Yuriev points out that future cooperation with Chinese enterprises will be long-term, and the amount of project investment will be relatively large, so there is a problem of credit guarantee. They do not want Chinese banks to issue guarantees for Chinese enterprises, but rather international companies to issue such guarantees.
There is no ethane cracking unit in China yet.
& At present, no cracking unit of ethane or ethane + light hydrocarbon has been built in China. It is suggested to adopt mature technology abroad to achieve the goal of reliable operation, advanced performance and rapid construction. & Cheng Guanghui told China Chemical Daily about the current situation of ethane utilization in China.
It is known that there are many processes for ethane to ethylene, and the ethane steam cracking technology has been industrialized. The core of the development of this technology is the improvement and perfection of cracking furnace technology. The representative companies are American Rumse Company, S& W Company, Germany Linde Company, Netherlands KTI Company and Sinopec Engineering Construction Company. The technology has the advantages of single product and abundant hydrogen production, but the reaction conditions are harsh and the energy consumption is high. Ethane steam cracking is currently used in ethane cracking plants built in the United States, the Middle East and Europe.
Currently, there are two processes still under study: catalytic membrane reactor dehydrogenation and oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. Catalytic membrane reactor (CMR) dehydrogenation has low reaction temperature and high product yield, which is a potential development direction and is still in its infancy. Ethane oxidative dehydrogenation process was developed in the 1970s. It seems to be a competitive and commercialized technology route. This method has obvious advantages such as mild reaction conditions, low investment and operation cost. The oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene can be divided into gas phase oxidation cracking, catalytic oxidation cracking and millisecond reaction according to the different reaction forms.
Industry insiders pointed out that by the end of 2015, China had 18.1 million tons of ethylene production capacity using naphtha as raw material and about 55 million tons of raw materials needed. If the ethylene plant using naphtha as raw material is adapted, 10 tons of ethylene can be replaced.% 15% naphtha. At present, many sets of reforms have been completed in the United States and Europe, and they are just beginning in China. Enterprises in China should speed up the pre-work progress and seize the opportunities of resources and industrial distribution.
Preparations are under way.
As for the imminent arrival of ethane in the United States, China Chemical Journal reporters learned that all parties are preparing for this.
In May, Jiangsu Huazi Ocean Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ Huazi Haigong & rdquo;) held a commencement ceremony in the workshop, which attracted the attention of all parties in the shipbuilding industry chain. This ceremony marks the opening of the world's largest C-type marine liquid tank, which will be used to support the world's first 85,000 cubic metres super-large Semi-cold semi-pressurized ethane and ethylene vessels.
Zhou Bing, vice-minister of Huazi Marine Engineering Design Department, introduced that the design team adopted the most advanced triple tank design in the world, which made the capacity of single tank reach 23,000 cubic meters and the weight of steel structure reach 1800 tons. Compared with the traditional double tank design, this design can increase the loading capacity by 20% without changing the ship's length and width. Not only that, but also because of the pressure design, the cost can be greatly saved in the operation process.
It is reported that on December 11, 2015, JHW Engineering Company, founded in Hong Kong, and Dalian Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Ocean Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ Dalian Marine Engineering & rdquo;) signed five shipbuilding contracts for 85,000 cubic metres of super large ethane and ethylene vessels. On that day, Huazi Haigong and Dalian Haigong signed a contract for the supply of liquid tanks for the project, totaling 20 cargo tanks and 10 fuel tanks. The first two super-large liquid tanks will be delivered in May 2017 and shipped to Dalian Marine Engineering for final installation. Five 85,000 cubic metres of super large ethane and ethylene vessels will be delivered in March 2018 to transport ethane separated from American shale gas to Donghua Energy's chemical plants in China.
At the beginning of June, Mikhail Yuriev led the executive director and the president of Asia-Pacific region to visit Haijing Chemical Industry with 11 people from Dongfang Gas Company (Hong Kong), and then held talks. The leaders of Gulf Group, Dong Jiakou Economic Zone, Qingdao Shihua Company and Haijing Chemical Industry participated in the talks.
During the talks, Ocean Crystal and Ethane Company of the United States exchanged views on the construction of Ethane-related facilities. Ethane Company of the United States also gave a preliminary answer to Ocean Crystal's concerns. Ocean Crystal Chemicals is investigating and investigating ethane to ethylene technology in recent years to reduce costs and improve market competitiveness by extending the industrial chain.
According to Mikhail Yuriev, they also recently contacted Sichuan's PVC manufacturers in the hope of finding more users in China.
However, some people in the industry expressed concern that the United States is currently one of the few exporters of ethane because of its high ethane content in shale gas. Although the price is good at present, it is unclear whether the United States will bid in the long run.