China’s Coal-Gasification Technology Still Needs 5 Years before Commercialization, Experts Say

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Experts who recently attended the Chinese Academy of Sciences-Xinjiang Technology Cooperation discussion forum said that even though coal gasification is crucial to the makeup of China’s energy structure, the necessary technology in China is still five years away from being commercialized.

Sun Yuhan, Director of the Shanxi Coal Chemical Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the country’s coal-chemical industry is not constrained by the maturity of coal-gasification technology. It will still take five to eight years before coal-gasification technology can be used on large projects and in commercial production.

Although China has inexpensive, low-oxygen-consuming ash agglomeration technology that can be adapted for use on a variety of coals, there is still no large-scale demonstration unit that has operated on commercial production. This Chinese-owned technology is still not ready for promotion and cannot satisfy the urgent need for the development of the coal-chemical industry.

It is estimated that by 2010, up to 100 million tons of coal will be used in gasification in China. The ethanol projects and coal-to-oil conversion projects that are in construction, and the coal-to-olefin project that is in preparation all await mature coal gasification technology.

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