Capacity increased by 214.3% compared with the initial stage

China's overall energy feature is "rich in coal, little in oil and gas". Coal is the first choice fuel for China's power production. At the same time, due to the shortage of oil resources in China, coal to oil has become an important trend of energy strategy. In 2011, China's coal to oil technology with independent intellectual property rights was successfully developed, and the passive situation of being controlled by people was broken. Since then, the coal to oil project in China has developed rapidly. According to the statistics of the coal chemical industry special committee of the Sinopec Federation, by the end of September this year, China's coal to oil production capacity had reached 9.21 million tons, an increase of 214.3% compared with the beginning of the 13th five year plan. Friendly ecological environment is one of the important characteristics of coal to oil project. Under the environmental protection policy, relevant enterprises are still trying to reduce energy consumption, water consumption and "three wastes" emissions. At present, the per ton oil-water consumption of coal direct liquefaction demonstration project has decreased from the designed value of 10 tons to 5.82 tons; the water consumption of RMB 10000 industrial added value is 17.8 tons / 10000 yuan, far below the national industrial average level of RMB 682 tons / 10000 yuan.

However, due to the double constraints of coal price and oil price, domestic coal price and oil price have been high in recent years, which makes it difficult for coal to oil project to make profits. However, since this year, under the international geopolitical policy, the international oil price has gradually picked up, the overall operation of the modern coal chemical industry is stable and improving, and the coal to liquid industry has begun to turn losses into profits. For example, Shenmu Tianyuan Chemical Co., Ltd., which owns 500000 tons / year coal tar hydrogenation, has achieved a profit of 190 million yuan in 2017. Since this year, driven by the steady increase of oil price, its monthly profit has reached more than 40 million yuan. Shenmu Fuyou Energy Technology Co., Ltd., which has completed the expansion and transformation, is also expected to make a profit this year. It is generally believed that when the international oil price is kept at $50-60 / barrel, the coal to liquid oil can reach the break even point. The higher the oil price is, the greater the profit margin of the enterprise will be. However, another factor restricting the profitability of coal to oil is the high tax burden policy. According to the current tax rate, combined with the current cost and price of coal to oil, if the enterprise produces all oil products and pays taxes strictly, it will lose 1500-2000 yuan per ton of products. Previously, at the national two sessions, a number of coal enterprises called for the consumptive tax policy to be improved as soon as possible in order to stabilize the development trend of coal to oil industry.

For the future development of coal to oil projects in China, scientific research is the most important. Wang Siqiang, director of the Department of energy conservation, science and technology and equipment of the national energy administration, proposed at the 2018 China International Coal Chemical Industry Development Forum recently that the direct coal liquefaction will focus on the development of aviation coal and special kerosene; the indirect coal liquefaction will extend to the downstream industry, realize diversified development and promote the joint production of the two. It is worth mentioning that recently, Beijing Institute of low carbon and clean energy of China and researchers from Eindhoven University of technology and other institutions in the Netherlands developed a new catalyst, which can significantly reduce the cost of indirect coal liquefaction and open a new door for the capture and utilization of carbon dioxide produced in the process of coal liquefaction. According to reports, this research was supported by the national key R & D plan "advanced indirect coal liquefaction and product processing complete set technology development" undertaken by China National Energy Group.