Methanol companies encounter deep-seated "chaos" in the pinching industry

Petrochemical said it does not want methanol gasoline into the market

Methanol companies encounter deep-seated "chaos" in the pinching industry

Chinese companies that produce methanol gasoline may be disappointed. At the interim results briefing held last week, Wang Tianpu, president of Sinopec [8.21-0.24%], made it clear that he did not want a low percentage of M15 methanol gasoline to hit the market. As we all know, to promote methanol gasoline in China, the country’s largest product oil seller has a very important attitude.

Because other downstream products are also sluggish, and the cost is rising, the domestic methanol industry has become “confused” and urgently needs to be pointed out by the government...

Oil giant refuses methanol gasoline

“Methanol may cause human health problems during use, so Sinopec does not expect a low percentage of M15 methanol gasoline to be put on the market. A high percentage of M85 methanol gasoline will not be used after it is put on the market due to the need to remodel the engine. There is currently no It is necessary to promote use," Wang Tianpu said.

It is reported that the so-called M15 methanol gasoline refers to the addition of about 15% methanol in gasoline and a certain amount of additives. By analogy, the M30 and M85 add 30% and 85% methanol, respectively, to the gasoline. At present, only Shanxi Province is fully promoting methanol gasoline.

Wang Tianpu revealed that the M15's national standard for methanol gasoline has already been in existence, but some problems were found during the pilot process. There is no timetable for when the standards are implemented.

The reporter then learned from the industry that the problem of methanol gasoline first appeared in the corrosion of the engine and its components. American automakers such as GM, Ford, and Chrysler made it clear in their user manual that damage to vehicles using methanol gasoline is not covered by the warranty. Secondly, methanol is easy to stratify in water, so when it is used, it has higher requirements for the sealing of vehicle fuel tanks, oil pipelines and other equipment. Finally, methanol is a toxic substance that can cause harm to the human body if used carelessly.

However, a deputy secretary-general of the National Committee for Alcohol Ether Fuel and Alcohol Ether Clean Cars told this reporter that these problems can be solved. The government should not completely shut down the door of methanol gasoline promotion because of a little problem.

Earlier, an industry official once told this reporter that “at present, China’s gasoline sales are about 70 million tons to 100 million tons a year. If you use a few million tons of methanol gasoline to replace gasoline, it is easy to do so. If this is the case, the oil company's industrial chain will be greatly affected." According to him, the current oil company's gasoline supply and sales are in balance, and once the methanol gasoline enters, even if there are only 5 million tons, then the impact of 5 million Tonnes of regular gasoline will have problems regardless of storage and sales, and accordingly, the production chain will be suspended.

"This is a question of competition between the two industrial structures. It is inevitable that resistance will be encountered," said the above sources.

In his view, although the current domestic methanol gasoline production is not high, but the production capacity is great, once released, the input of trillions of output value will be quickly converted into output, when the domestic gasoline sales will certainly be greatly affected.

The second methanol gasoline pilot started

Although the state-owned oil giants are not very active in the marketing of methanol gasoline, some regions and enterprises with large coal resources have a soft spot for this kind of alternative energy. Shanxi, which has previously taken the lead in piloting methanol gasoline, is one example, and Hebei Tangshan Trials have also started recently.

The reporter recently learned that the KRW Group's coal chemical R&D center responsible for drafting and formulating the “M15 methanol gasoline for vehicles” corporate standard has recently passed the review of the expert group organized by Tangshan City. At present, Hebei Province has adopted Tangshan as a pilot city for methanol-gasoline, and Tangshan has used Kailuan as a demonstration enterprise for the promotion of M15 methanol gasoline.

Not long ago, Shandong Jinmei Mingshui Chemical Group Co., Ltd. signed a contract with Shanxi Jiaxin Fuel Co., Ltd. to build a methanol fuel deployment center in Shandong Province. The former will use the existing methanol production facilities and supporting facilities such as electricity and steam to produce and operate methanol fuels through the mature technologies of Jiaxin Company.

In addition, Yanhong Guohong Company, which has a production capacity of 500,000 tons/year of methanol, has long been engaged in technical cooperation with Shanghai Institute of Internal Combustion Engines, Shenzhen Chaomei Technology Co., Ltd., and Luhua Coal Water Slurry Pressurization and National Engineering Research Center. M15 clean-denatured methanol fuel was developed and passed the appraisal of Shandong Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute.

China National Chemical Network analyst Gao Guoyun said that in 2009 China's apparent oil consumption of 207 million tons, if calculated according to M15 methanol gasoline, it can consume millions of tons of methanol, as long as the oil product market can share Methanol gasoline, the huge market for methanol should not be underestimated.

The downturn in the downturn makes it worse

In the short term, it is obviously not appropriate for methanol companies to completely press “Bao” on methanol gasoline. Senior Sinopec’s position has already hinted that the promotion of methanol gasoline in China is not destined to be smooth.

The methanol market is even worse, the domestic methanol operating rate is a serious shortage, and other downstream products of methanol this year also fell into the doldrums.

As a traditional downstream industry of methanol, the market conditions of formaldehyde, acetic acid, etc. can be described as depressed. From 2008 to the present, the formaldehyde industry in China, which accounts for about 30% of the total methanol demand, continues to outstrip the demand. In 2009, the output of the industry has a negative growth. As for methanol, another important downstream dimethyl ether enterprise is still struggling: since the first half of the liquefied gas mixture incident was exposed, the country began to investigate this practice closely, and the relevant mixed-mixing standards have not yet been introduced, which is almost blocked. Died out the way for the dimethyl ether industry. It is reported that from 2009 to the present, the average operating rate of dimethyl ether enterprises nationwide is only about 20%.

As for the currently highly developed methanol-to-olefins, most of them are in the planning and construction stage, and the raw materials are mostly derived from their own methanol plant, which is not good for the existing methanol companies. In the upstream area of ​​methanol, the price of coal has risen continuously, and the price of natural gas has risen sharply. Then, the price of electricity for water has been rising. The entire methanol industry faces dual pressures of demand and costs and can only be disheartened.