Production Situation and Development Trends of Hydrogen Peroxide in China    

By Wu Guoquan, Li Cheng, Liu Shimei, Wu Qiujun, Wang Qingji, Liu Zonghai, Song Shuli, from Qingdao Soda Ash Industrial Co., Ltd., Email: wu0136@126.com

Hydrogen peroxide has relatively strong oxidizing property, so it is widely used in papermaking, and also in chemical industries such as textiles, pesticides, medicines, as well as washing. Although hydrogen peroxide is fairly stable in an acid environment, it is not suitable for long-distance transport due to its corrosive nature.

Domestic production situation   

At present, the global production capacity of hydrogen peroxide is highly concentrated and mainly controlled by seven large-scale enterprises, among which Solvay, Evonik Degussa and Arkema are the top three.
   China's production capacity, output and consumption of hydrogen peroxide all rank first in the world. In 2007, it realized a capacity of 3.8 million t/a (converting into a concentration of 27.5%, the same hereinafter), an annual output of 3.13 million tons and a consumption of 3.1 million tons. As of May 2009, China's production capacity of hydrogen peroxide has reached 4.37 million t/a, with the capacity of 18 enterprises each exceeding 100 000 t/a and another six each exceeding 150 000 t/a. Moreover, the units of these six enterprises make up 40% of the national total capacity. At present, the cumulative production capacity of the projects under construction is 810 000 t/a, and it is estimated that the national capacity will hit 5.22 million t/a in 2010.
    The integration of the domestic hydrogen peroxide industry is speeding up now which is shown in: ever-increasingly concentrated capacity, highly likely development trend of producing hydrogen peroxide from byproduct hydrogen in chlor-alkali plants, and generally large capacity (around 100 000 t/a) of single hydrogen peroxide units newly-built. Domestic manufacturers with relatively large scale include: Zhongcheng Chemicals Inc., Ltd. (750 000 t/a, among which 150 000 t/a are contributed by Guangdong Zhongcheng Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. and 600 000 t/a by Hunan Zhicheng Chemicals Industry Co., Ltd.), Shanghai Arkema Hydrogen Peroxide Co., Ltd. (300 000 t/a), Kingboard Chemical Holdings Ltd. (270 000 t/a, among which 130 000 t/a are contributed by Shandong Gaomi Kingboard Chemical Co., Ltd. and 140 000 t/a by Hunan Hengyang Kingboard Chemical Co., Ltd.), Anhui Linquan Industry Chemical Co., Ltd. (180 000 t/a), Shandong Huatai Group (160 000 t/a), Hebei Xinhua Limited Company (150 000 t/a) and so on. After the projects currently under construction by Jiangsu Yangnong Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Shandong Hengtong Chemical Co., Ltd., Guangxi Liuzhou Chemical Group and Jiangshan Hydrogen Peroxide Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang province are put into operation, the capacity of these four companies will all reach 200 000 t/a.
   Up to May 2009, these 18 enterprises with individual hydrogen peroxide capacity exceeding 100 000 t/a have a total capacity of 2.88 million t/a, accounting for 66% of the national total.
   There are mainly ten hydrogen peroxide projects under construction now with an accumulative capacity of 810 000 t/a. These units are scheduled to be completed and put into operation during the second half of 2009 and 2010, which will greatly affect the domestic hydrogen peroxide market.

Development trend

(1) Industry Integration is pressing

In recent years, the hydrogen peroxide consumption market at home has grown steadily with three major downstream industries, i.e. textiles, papermaking and chemical synthesis accounting for over 80% of the total consumption. China ranks first worldwide in production capacity and output of the textile industry and the papermaking industry, and at the same time, the production of peroxide by chemical synthesis is transferring from developed countries to China now. These factors are leading to rapid growth of domestic hydrogen peroxide production capacity and concentration of new capacity. With the added influence of the international financial crisis, industry integration has become inevitable. In this process, the companies will become larger in scale, and some inferior ones will be forced out of production or phased out depending mainly on the gap between the quality/costs of their products and the demands of the target market.

(2) Papermaking enterprises rush in

The domestic papermaking industry features high concentration ratio, and some papermaking giants, like Huatai Group, Shandong Sun Paper Industry Joint Stock Co., Ltd, Chenming Paper Group, Shandong Bohui Paper Co., Ltd, Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited and Tiger Forest & Paper Group Co., Ltd are streaming into the hydrogen peroxide industry so as to extend their industry chains and push forward industry integration.

(3) Combination of hydrogen peroxide units and chlor-alkali units

Hydrogen cost accounts for a high proportion of that of hydrogen peroxide, so in the manufacture of hydrogen peroxide, to make full use of byproduct hydrogen in chlor-alkali plants will provide more cost cuts than to obtain hydrogen from coal gasification. Among the new units, a large number use byproduct hydrogen generated by chlor-alkali units.

(4) Foreign capital enters

The inclination of large foreign-funded hydrogen peroxide enterprises to establish factories in China is becoming stronger. For example, the 100 000 t/a hydrogen peroxide unit in Zhangjiagang of Jiangsu province jointly built by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. and Jiangsu Suhua Group Co., Ltd. has been put into operation and is planned to extend to 200 000 t/a in capacity; the production capacity of Shanghai Arkema Hydrogen Peroxide Co., Ltd. has also doubled to 300 000 t/a.

(5) Consumption in chemical synthesis continues to grow

The proportion of hydrogen peroxide that is consumed by chemical synthesis has been growing steadily, mainly being used to manufacture products like sodium percarbonate, organic peroxides, fluorine-containing compounds, caprolactam and propylene oxide. In addition, the new technology of manufacturing propylene oxide through direct oxidation of propylene by hydrogen peroxide has a large potential demand for hydrogen peroxide. A 100 000 t/a propylene oxide plant using this technology has been put into operation abroad, while in China, the research results for this technology by Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS has also passed appraisal.

Enterprises with A Hydrogen Peroxide Capacity of Over 100 000 T/A
                        (As of May 2009)
Company                            Capacity/(000 ton)  
Tianjin Dagu Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.                  100   
Hebei Xinhua Limited Company                        150   
Shijiangzhuang Chemical Fiber Limited Company       100   
Guangdong Zhongcheng Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.    150   
Guangxi Liuzhou Chemical Group                      100   
Liming Research Institute of Chemical Industry