This article is reproduced in Science and Technology Daily

Energy-saving and environmentally-friendly coal-electric heating industrial park in Ordos, Inner Mongolia

To do a good job in the green development of energy, we must first achieve industrial environmental protection through technological innovation. Our goal is to make all the material components in fly ash into high-value-added main products and high-value-added by-products, so as to achieve zero emissions and net use. The Mengtai Group is planning to build a new energy power generation project to solve the project's green power supply problem, so as to ensure the green development and low-carbon operation of the fly ash industry.

——Ao Fengting, Chairman of Inner Mongolia Mengtai Group

The rise of Ordos City in Inner Mongolia due to energy has entered a new era, and it will inevitably shoulder a historic proposition: to do a good job of green energy development articles, and actively explore the path of modern energy industry transformation.

In the list of the top 100 private enterprises in Inner Mongolia in 2020, energy companies occupy three of the top six positions, with a total turnover of more than 90 billion yuan. In a sense, the transformation and development of leading companies will directly affect the industrial transformation and upgrading of many local energy companies, providing them with necessary ideas and experience.

On August 20, Gao Peijun, assistant to the president of Inner Mongolia Mengtai Group (hereinafter referred to as Mengtai Group), told reporters that the semi-industrial test of preparing aluminum-silicon alloys from high-alumina fly ash is underway, and major breakthroughs have been made in the research of this new technology. After reaching production capacity, they will provide a new path with high efficiency and high quality for the transformation and upgrading of the regional energy industry and the utilization of bulk solid waste of fly ash.

Relying on innovation, production transformation can be seen everywhere

One-sixth of the country's coal, one-quarter of natural gas, and more than 80 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity are produced in Ordos. In Ordos nowadays, mine ecological restoration and management, drained water recycling and reuse, emission reduction and dust reduction, and solid waste utilization have become compulsory courses for large energy companies. The R&D and application of high-tech, extending the industrial chain, and enriching the value chain are the key to the "seeing power" of the transformation and development of energy companies. In fact, the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry has been going on here.

In October 2019, Inner Mongolia Zhongwei Coal Gasification Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhongwei (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co., Ltd., carried out a breakthrough in the industrialization test and demonstration project of underground coal gasification (ISC) technology in Ordos City, and successfully produced synthesis gas. , Becoming the world’s first fourth-generation ISC technology industrialization demonstration project with high temperature and high pressure, pure oxygen gasification, safe and controllable, and large-scale industrial replication and promotion. It has been operating stably for nearly 2 years and has the conditions for large-scale industrialization. .

It is understood that as a disruptive coal mining technology innovation, the integration of this technology has achieved 5 world firsts: the first real-time underground gasifier process monitoring system; the first safe and controllable underground ignition and oxygen supply system; the first multi-channel, multi-channel Functional injection well and product well system; the first continuous production of high-temperature product well system; the first real-time underground environment monitoring system.

Wang Chuanmin, vice president of Zhongwei (Shanghai) Energy Technology Co., Ltd., told the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: "This project also created 6 China's firsts: the first ISC technology project for the deepest coal seam; the first long-passage underground horizontal docking gasification Furnace; the first industrial-scale ISC multifunctional coiled tubing skid-mounted system; the first modular coal tar solid-liquid separation and circulation system; the first industrial-scale ISC technology process control system; the first long-term, continuous, ISC technology projects that are stable, controllable, pure oxygen, safe, efficient, low-cost, green and environmentally friendly, and can be replicated in large-scale industrialization."

On the vast land of Wushen Banner, Ordos City, a soil conditioner derived from coal gangue with organic fertilizer properties is being developed experimentally. The research team is continuously collecting data from the demonstration fields and improving the ratio.

This technology from Ordos Baoyi Technology Co., Ltd. bases its industrial development on the consumption and recycling of coal gangue resources, transforming coal gangue on the spot, and preparing it into a soil conditioner that can be used in saline-alkali land and sandy land. From the selection of resources to the application of new products, it is highly compatible with the status quo of resources and the natural environment of Ordos.

Zhang Chuanxiang, the leader of the R&D team and the dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University of Technology, told reporters: "Our technical route is to break coal gangue into particles, add microbial strains and minerals that stimulate microbial growth, and mix them and sprinkle them on the ground. Coal gangue degrades. The process is also a slow-release process of organic ingredients, which can gradually increase the organic carbon content in the soil to achieve the purpose of soil improvement."

Choosing the right resources and creating a new path for the industry

If hard core technology is a strong support for the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry, then new technologies and strategic industrial layout can make the transformation and development of the energy industry go further.

For the Montai Group, guaranteeing coal supply and power transmission is the responsibility of the company. In the new era, how to simultaneously ensure production capacity, reduce energy consumption, realize solid waste utilization, and extend the industrial chain has become a problem that this leading company must think about and practice.

Mengtai Group has set its sights on the high-aluminum fly ash in the Erdos Zhungeer Coalfield and surrounding areas. These fly ash mainly come from local thermal power plants, such as China Energy Group Guohua Power, the world’s largest thermal power plant Datang Tuodian, etc. , For a long time they are buried deep underground, tens of millions of tons.

"Fly ash diffuses into the environment and will cause heavy pollution, but the fly ash here contains a very high proportion of aluminum. If used well, its ecological benefits and economic value will be immeasurable." Gao Peijun told reporters.

Extracting and preparing strategic resources from pollutants and squeezing coal resources are the focus of energy companies. In recent years, China Datang Group’s "pre-desilicated soda lime sintering to prepare alumina" industrialization demonstration line, and the National Energy Group’s fly ash hydrochloric acid method to prepare alumina project have all contributed to the comprehensive utilization of fly ash. Valuable technical experience.

The aluminum industry chain of the Mengtai Group is becoming more and more mature, with sales of nearly tens of billions. However, to achieve industrial transformation and upgrading, the traditional high-energy-consuming production process must first be abandoned. On the patent wall of the headquarters of the Mengtai Group, the reporter saw an invention patent authorization: a method for preparing aluminum silicon oxide from fly ash.

"If the cost of preparing alumina from fly ash is too high, can we take a different approach and simultaneously utilize the two major elements, aluminum and silicon, which account for the highest proportion in fly ash, to prepare aluminum-silicon alloys with large market demand and high added value? What? In fact, we have already started this technology research and made breakthroughs in key technologies last year. This technology research will largely determine the future of our company." Say.

Strategic layout outlines the high-end materials market

At the beginning of 2020, a German aluminum deep processing company called APT was wholly-owned by a Chinese company. This also means that the second largest aluminum deep processing company in Europe began to work for the Chinese, and it was the Mengtai Group that invested in the acquisition of APT. After the production of aluminum-silicon alloys from high-aluminum fly ash is industrialized, my country's aluminum alloy products can directly enter the European market.

Gao Peijun confessed to reporters that the traditional melt blending method to produce aluminum-silicon alloys is very different from our use of fly ash to prepare aluminum-silicon alloys. The former is production, and the latter is the innovation of technology and process flow, and the transformation and upgrading of industrial technology. Sign.

In the corporate technology research and development log, the production process and equipment development of aluminum-silicon alloy prepared by aluminum-silicon oxide of Mengtai Group are clear at a glance. The industrial silicon is formed after remelting. The production and smelting of the raw material metal aluminum and industrial silicon require high energy consumption. The remelting process requires a large amount of energy consumption and causes secondary melting loss of raw materials and environmental pollution; Aluminum-silicon oxide produces aluminum-silicon alloys in one step, eliminating the need for remelting. At the same time, the required aluminum and silicon elements come directly from solid waste—the aluminum-silicon oxide extracted from fly ash. It saves the resources in fly ash, saves freight, and greatly reduces energy consumption from the entire production process of aluminum-silicon alloy.

Through market research, aluminum-silicon alloy is the main alloy material for lightweight product manufacturing. At present, the market price per ton is about 600 yuan higher than that of aluminum, and some high-performance aluminum-silicon alloys are more than 2,000 yuan per ton higher than aluminum. The annual market demand is about 9 million tons, and it is increasing year by year. There is no doubt that the production process of preparing aluminum-silicon alloy from fly ash can create considerable economic value while solving the problem of fly ash environmental pollution.

"Undoubtedly, to do a good job in the green development of energy, we must first achieve industrial environmental protection through technological innovation. Our goal is to make all the material components in fly ash into high-value-added main products and high-value-added by-products. Zero emissions, net utilization." Ao Fengting told reporters that in order to support the implementation of the fly ash preparation of aluminum-silicon alloy projects, according to the national "dual-carbon" goal, Montai Group is planning to build new energy power generation projects to solve the problem of green power supply. , So as to ensure the green development and low-carbon operation of the fly ash industry.

According to Ao Fengting’s analysis, after the project is industrialized, it can not only effectively solve the problem of solid waste discharge from a large number of coal-fired power plants, but also solve the problem of raw material supply needed for the development of the domestic aluminum industry at low cost; more importantly, it can Make up for the lack of domestic bauxite resources, reduce dependence on foreign bauxite, and at the same time avoid the risk of supply interruption in the import of bauxite, and improve the strategic safety of the development of my country's aluminum industry.