In the context of “double carbon”, profound changes will take place at both ends of energy supply and energy demand. Enterprises are trying various carbon reduction modes, such as using CCUs (carbon capture, utilization and storage) technology, using green electricity to replace traditional energy, and so on. What are the advantages of different carbon reduction methods? How to reduce consumption and carbon in high energy consumption industry? How to achieve cost reduction while saving energy and reducing emission? In the case of rising raw material and energy prices, how can iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, chemical and other industries ensure profits?
On the afternoon of January 10, 2022, “double carbon new track · new energy opportunities” — 2021 China double Carbon Energy Development Summit Forum was held in Shanghai Hongqiao yingdige hotel. At the discussion session with the theme of “double change of energy supply and demand under double carbon goals”, Professor Wu Zhu, the host of China US green fund, and five guests had an in-depth discussion on the above issues.
new inspiration for carbon capture and reuse
In the past year, carbon and consumption reduction has attracted extensive attention from all walks of life, and various innovative technologies and models have emerged and developed rapidly.
Ni Juan, Secretary of the board of directors, said that Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) has formed four business segments: natural gas liquefaction, coal mining, coal chemical conversion and oil and gas exploration and development. It is the only private enterprise in China with three resources of coal, gas and oil at the same time. The proposal of the dual carbon goal brings an opportunity for the transformation of the traditional energy industry. As a representative of traditional fossil energy enterprises, Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) the problem we must face now is how to meet the development requirements of the new energy industry under the dual carbon goal in the future development, realize the clean utilization of coal and develop a low-carbon economy.
” Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) the second strategic transformation was launched in 2021. One direction is carbon dioxide capture, storage and reuse, and the other direction is to explore hydrogen energy in combination with LNG business and make the transformation in the direction of the whole industrial chain.” Ni Juan said.
It is understood that Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) the main coal and coal chemical project base is located in Xinjiang, which has unique geographical advantages. It is not only rich in coal resources, but also close to the oil resources with huge reserves. The prominent feature of Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) is that the business areas of coal mine and coal chemical industry are relatively concentrated. Therefore, Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) has the advantages of easy capture and low cost in carbon dioxide capture.
Ni Juan said: “Carbon dioxide capture includes various ways before and after combustion. The CCUs project we are currently doing is planned to build a 3 million T / a carbon dioxide capture, pipeline transportation and oil displacement integration project in stages, of which the first phase is to build a 100000 t / a carbon dioxide capture and utilization demonstration project. The main source of carbon dioxide is low-temperature methanol washing and emission in the coal to methanol project The carbon dioxide in the feed gas accounts for about 80% – 85%, which can simplify the capture process, reduce investment and greatly reduce the capture cost. “
After carbon dioxide capture, how should it be stored? At present, the common storage methods are mainly geological storage and marine storage, but no matter which storage method will produce new costs, and it is impossible to achieve 100% non overflow. The way that Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) CCUs project reuses carbon dioxide with the help of regional advantages has a strong reference significance.
Xinjiang’s oil resources are about 30 billion tons, accounting for 1 / 4 of the country’s onshore oil resources. However, Xinjiang’s proven oil and gas reserves are far greater than the production capacity, and the undeveloped oil reserves rank first in the country. There are two ways to increase the production of single wells in oil fields: water flooding and carbon dioxide flooding. Xinjiang is structurally short of water, and many oil fields are in the hinterland of the desert. Ni Juan believes that carbon dioxide flooding will become the most favorable and appropriate way to improve the production of single wells in Xinjiang Oilfield. Therefore, the project we need to do now is to capture the carbon dioxide produced by coal chemical industry and transport it to the oilfield by building transmission pipelines to help the oilfield improve the output of single wells. In the future, the universal application of CCUs in Xinjiang Oilfield will help the oilfield stabilize production and increase production, and significantly improve oil production.
saving energy and reducing consumption, letting a hundred flowers bloom
For high energy consumption industries such as steel and construction, energy conservation and consumption reduction is an important way to reduce carbon, which requires technological breakthroughs and innovative models.
“The main reason for the amplification of carbon emission in the iron and steel industry is that the proportion of coal consumption is too large. More than 80% of China’s iron and steel obtains iron by reducing iron ore. a large amount of coke and coal injection are required in the reduction process. Therefore, as the industry with the largest carbon emission in the manufacturing industry, the pressure of carbon emission reduction in the iron and steel industry is very great.” Huang Jianzhong, senior senior manager of China Baowu strategic planning department, said that China’s iron and steel industry’s energy consumption accounts for about 13% of the total social output, and China’s iron and steel production accounts for 57% of the world’s total emissions, but carbon emissions should account for more than 70% of the global iron and steel industry’s total emissions. In order to achieve sustainable development in the future, the iron and steel industry is vigorously promoting the “double carbon” work, Most of the world’s mainstream iron and steel enterprises put forward the carbon neutralization target in 2050, and most of the Chinese iron and steel enterprises, including Baowu group, also put forward the carbon neutralization target in 2050. However, compared with the iron and steel enterprises dominated by short process technology in European and American developed countries, it is obviously much more difficult for Chinese iron and steel enterprises to achieve carbon neutralization.
In addition, for high energy consuming enterprises, in addition to reducing carbon, they should also reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and other waste gases.
\u3000\u3000 “Carbon dioxide emission reduction was not included in the environmental protection assessment requirements of steel enterprises before, because carbon dioxide does not have a dominant impact on people’s health, but only has a slow impact on global warming. However, sulfur dioxide and other harmful gases and particles are different, which directly affect people’s physical health. Therefore, the state has been strictly rectifying and issuing strict ultra-low emission standards for enterprises If it does not meet the emission standards, it will stop production, so this piece of Chinese steel enterprises has done well. In the future, with the further implementation of carbon emission reduction, the ultra-low emission of harmful gases will be solved naturally. At present, the investment in environmental protection is the largest technical transformation investment of major steel mills, and the environmental protection cost of steel mills now accounts for a large proportion of the total cost. ” Huang Jianzhong said that at present, most Chinese iron and steel enterprises can actively invest in environmental protection, because this investment can play a good expected effect, which directly determines whether the enterprise can gain a foothold in the industry and develop sustainably.
The construction industry is also a major energy consumer. Xia Feng, general manager of Baoye Group Shanghai company, shared three ways to save energy and reduce carbon in the construction industry: first, increase the service cycle of buildings, increase the standard life of buildings from 50 years to 100 years, and pursue the longevity of buildings; The second is to use a new way of building industrialization, which is no longer the original human shoulder and labor-intensive way. Through mechanization, assembly line, equipment, industrialization and automation, use Siasun Robot&Automation Co.Ltd(300024) to replace labor force; Third, reduce carbon in the whole life cycle. What materials are used in the early stage of the project and what materials are used in the same building will have lower energy consumption and carbon emission, and reduce carbon in the whole industry chain and life cycle.
In addition, energy supply enterprises are also trying to develop green energy. Ni Juan introduced the second green transformation direction of Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) atthe meeting: ” Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) combined with the technical and personnel advantages in the LNG field, gradually explore the hydrogen energy field and make the transformation in the direction of the whole industrial chain. It is hoped that Guanghui Energy Co.Ltd(600256) in the future can be displayed to the outside world with a new image of the combination of traditional energy and green energy.”
grasp the resource side and rebalance the industrial chain
In terms of steel, photovoltaic, lithium battery and other industries, most of its upstream raw materials should be introduced from abroad, such as iron ore, metallic silicon, lithium ore and so on.
However, product processing and energy consumption are in China. Participants believed that this will have two effects: one is to reduce corporate profits, and the other is to increase the pressure on China’s carbon emission reduction.
Hu Jian, senior vice president of Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Network Information Technology Co., Ltd., said: “China’s iron ore, copper ore, lithium ore and cobalt ore are more than 70% dependent on the outside world. In 2021, the prices of silicon and lithium required for new energy soared, and the price of silicon increased from 20000 yuan / ton to 60000 yuan / ton within one month, tripled. At the same time, some metals, such as lithium carbonate for new energy batteries, increased from about 45000 yuan / ton to 300000 yuan / ton, more than six times higher than that in the upstream The sharp rise in the price of the resource side has put special pressure on the middle and lower reaches of the manufacturing industry. “
In addition, the rapid development of China’s economy over the years has also brought huge energy consumption. At present, China’s energy supply is still dominated by coal. In 2021, coal prices soared, coal resources were in short supply, and power rationing occurred everywhere. With the advancement of power market-oriented reform, power cost also has an upward trend.
The rising cost of raw materials and electricity has led to the rising cost of manufacturing enterprises in the middle and lower reaches. However, these enterprises have no way to transfer them to the consumer terminal through an effective mechanism. “Therefore, many photovoltaic enterprises, automobile enterprises and home appliance enterprises will come to us to sort out the industrial chain and how to better control the industrial chain, which has become a severe problem they have to face.” Hu Jian said.
From the perspective of commodity industry chain, many resources are held overseas, especially in the hands of many international mining giants. With the rise of commodity prices last year, many profits have been earned overseas. However, the good news is that Chinese enterprises are trying to master some resources in the world, such as Tianqi Lithium Corporation(002466) , Ganfeng Lithium Co.Ltd(002460) mastering overseas lithium battery resources, Huayou and lomo mastering overseas cobalt resources, etc. This is conducive to promoting the profit or value rebalancing of the whole industrial chain, so that there will be no more sharp ups and downs.
For the non-ferrous metal market in 2022, Hu Jian predicted that copper, aluminum, magnesium and other basic metals will eventually fall with the rebalancing of supply and demand. For industries where downstream demand is still growing rapidly, such as new energy, the price of raw materials will remain high in 2022.
In 2021, the three brothers of coal (power coal, coking coal, coke and iron ore) reached a new high since listing. First, the price reached a new high, and second, the fluctuation range reached a new high. Wang Jinhua, director of big data Research Institute of steel network industry, believes that in the medium term, under the background of carbon neutralization, the general direction of steel production restriction will not change, the crude steel output will continue to decline, and the crude steel output of 1.065 billion tons in 2020 will also become the top of China’s crude steel output in the next few years.
“However, the implementation of the policy in 2022 will be less than that in 2021. First, the weight of steady growth at the policy level is increasing. Second, the central economic work conference not only emphasizes the unswerving promotion of the” double carbon “strategy, but also emphasizes that it can not be accomplished in one battle. Third, the policy side may pay more attention to the adjustment of raw material structure in 2022.” Wang Jinhua said.
Green transformation is unstoppable. It is a good transformation opportunity for both energy supply enterprises and energy demand enterprises, but it will also face the pressure of rising costs and compressed profit space. However, technology is making continuous progress and business model is constantly innovating. In the future, energy supply and energy consumption enterprises will achieve high-quality development under the incentive of double carbon goals!
