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At the recent Refining and Chemical Innovation Forum held concurrently with the 2025 National Petroleum and Chemical Industry Science and Technology Innovation Conference, Hu Yongkang, a senior member of the Science and Technology Committee of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation and a senior advisor to the Academic Committee of Sinopec (Dalian) Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology Co., LTD., clearly pointed out at the beginning that Technological innovation has always been the core engine for the refining and chemical industry to achieve high-quality development. In the face of the urgent need for green and low-carbon transformation in the industry, how to solve development problems and achieve high-quality development through technological innovation has become the core issue of the industry.

Technological innovation boosts carbon reduction in the industry

Technological innovation serves as an "accelerator" for carbon reduction in the refining and chemical industry. Li Mingfeng, the director of the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing of Sinopec, has proposed four innovative paths for deep carbon reduction in the refining and chemical industry, namely flexible refining, low-carbon refining, transformation from refining to chemical industry, and recycling of waste resources. These innovations have injected strong impetus into the green and low-carbon development of the industry, and many of the breakthrough achievements have been industrialized and achieved remarkable results.

"Flexible refining refers not only to the flexibility of the technology itself, but also to the flexibility of the equipment." " Li Mingfeng took the technology of converting light hydrocarbons to ethane as an example to illustrate that in the conventional fixed-bed technology of converting light hydrocarbons to ethane, the yield of ethane is greater than 55%, and the yields of ethane and propane are greater than 85%, but the hydrogen consumption will reach 4%. In response to this, the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing has innovatively developed a moving bed technology, which has increased the yields of ethane, propane and aromatics to 90%, while reducing hydrogen consumption to 1.3%. At present, both the fixed bed and moving bed technologies of the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing have been industrialized, with market shares of 80% and 100% respectively.

In addition, the external true sulfidation technology of the hydrogenation catalyst developed by the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing can enhance the utilization rate of hydrogen and reduce the consumption of chemical hydrogen. It has been successfully applied in nearly 70 hydrogenation units.

At present, inferior heavy oil has occupied the largest share of raw materials for processing in China's petrochemical industry. The future route for catalytic cracking of heavy oil to produce propylene is highly competitive. Li Mingfeng introduced that the high-efficiency catalytic cracking (RTC) technology for heavy oil developed by the Research Institute of Petroleum Processing applies a rapid fluidized bed reactor to the catalytic cracking reaction process, opening up a new path for low-cost "oil conversion" in petrochemical enterprises. Cao Dongxue also suggested that, given the limited access to low-cost energy for enterprises, those developing the olefin industry chain and having insufficient heavy oil processing capacity should give priority to adopting the RTC route.

Build a green and low-carbon industrial ecosystem

Only by integrating the concept of green development throughout the entire production process can the refining and chemical industry achieve sustainable development and strike a balance between ecological protection and economic growth. Hu Yongkang, a senior member of the Science and Technology Committee of China Petrochemical Corporation and a senior advisor to the Academic Committee of Sinopec (Dalian) Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology Co., LTD., proposed that the refining and chemical industry needs to further accelerate the pace of green transformation, focus on improving energy utilization efficiency, continuously optimize process technology, and reduce energy consumption and waste generation from the source At the same time, efforts should be made to enhance the resource utilization of waste, continue to explore the application of clean energy such as hydrogen energy and bioenergy, and build a green and low-carbon industrial ecosystem.

Zhang Laiyong, the chief technical expert of China Global Engineering Co., LTD., proposed that China's refining and chemical industry should achieve coordinated development and carbon reduction at the "three ends" through green substitution at the production capacity end, process reengineering at the consumption end, and carbon sequestration conversion at the carbon sequestration end, to address the current situation of long refining and chemical production processes, high comprehensive energy consumption load, difficulty in increasing the electrification rate, and high costs of carbon dioxide capture and utilization. Integrate the entire industrial technology chain of green electricity, green hydrogen and carbon sequestration conversion, and build a transformative carbon reduction and low-carbon zero-carbon production mode.

Zhang Laiyong took the coupling of new energy with coal-to-olefins as an example to illustrate the carbon reduction path of green hydrogen coupling. According to him, the production of green hydrogen through the new energy electrolytic water hydrogen production process can increase the output of methanol and olefins, adjust the carbon-hydrogen ratio and significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The supplementation of green oxygen can also partially replace oxygen production by air separation, reducing carbon dioxide emissions caused by the power consumption of air separation units. For instance, a 3 million tons/year new energy coupled coal-to-olefins project in the northwest region consumes 9.22 million tons of raw coal annually, uses 4.3 billion kilowatt-hours of self-generated green electricity, and has an annual carbon emission of 11.38 million tons, equivalent to 3.43 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per ton of olefins.

Zhang Laiyong put forward three suggestions for the future development of the refining and chemical industry: First, promote collaborative technological research and demonstration applications throughout the entire industrial chain, focus on supporting breakthroughs in core technologies of hydrogen energy "production, storage, transportation and application", accelerate the integration pilot of hydrogen production from renewable energy and traditional refining and chemical processes, and explore low-cost large-scale application scenarios; Second, establish a green certification system for hydrogen-based chemical products to align with international standards, promote the establishment of a green labeling system covering hydrogen production raw materials, production processes, and storage and transportation links, and build regional certification centers based on renewable energy hydrogen production projects to reduce international green trade barriers and activate the value empowerment of the carbon market for green hydrogen refining and chemical industry. Third, deepen the integration of intelligent regulation and control technology with multi-energy coupling systems, build a collaborative digital platform for refining and chemical industry - new energy, apply digital twin technology, and reduce operation and maintenance costs.