China's Dimethyl Carbonate Production Capacity Exhibits A Gradual Growing Trend
Click:0    DateTime:Aug.24,2021

Hu Yanbing, Shenyang Research Institute of Chemical Industry Testing Technology Co., Ltd.

At present most of the domestic dimethyl carbonate (DMC) manufacturers produce industrial-level DMC. As for battery-level DMC, there are only a few companies capable of producing battery-grade DMC which requires high manufacturing standards.

Some of the production capacity will be increased in 2021

In 2020 there were 16 major DMC manufacturers in China, with a total production capacity of 1.096 million t/a. In 2020 China's DMC output increased steadily, with an output of approximately 520 000 ton, an increase of 7% over the same period in 2019.

The largest domestic DMC manufacturer is Zhejiang Petrochemical, which put into operation in 2020, and its DMC is an excellent gasoline and diesel additive (industrial level); Shandong Shida Shenghua Chemical Co., Ltd. ranks second, with an industrial-level DMC production capacity of 102 000 t/a, battery-level DMC production capacity of 23 000 t/a; Tongling Jintai Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. ranks third, with an industrial-level DMC capacity of 85 000 t/a and battery-level DMC capacity of 5 000 t/a. The production capacity statistics of major domestic DMC manufacturers in 2020 are shown in Table 1.

P2-1.

In 2021 some new DMC facilities will be put into production in China and all of them will be adopted new operating processes. Some of the by-product DMC of coal-to-ethylene glycol production capacity will also been added as shown in Table 2 in details. It is estimated that from 2021 to 2022, China's annual DMC output will continue to increase to nearly 600 000 t.

P2-2.

Downstream demand has grown steadily recently

Traditional China DMC industry mainly includes the following five major downstream industries:

Firstly is lithium-ion battery electrolyte. In recent years, China’s mobile electrical appliance industries such as mobile phones, portable computers, video cameras, and cameras have developed rapidly. In particular, the market for electric mopeds and electric cars is becoming one of the most promising industries in China under the guidance of the national new energy strategy. Correspondingly the output and demand of the lithium battery industry have also grown rapidly. It can be estimated that with the continuous implementation of the national new energy industry plan, the demand for DMC in the field of lithium batteries will grow rapidly.

The second is the paint, coating, and adhesive industries, which account for more than 50% of the total domestic DMC consumption. With the continuous improvement of consumers' environmental awareness and environmental protection requirements, the non-toxic and high safety characteristics of DMC cater to the needs of the market and usher in development opportunities.

The third is PC. With the rapid development of the domestic DMC industry in recent years, DMC has gradually replaced PC and isocyanate, which have a large gap in the phosgene production market.

The fourth is the pharmaceutical industry. With the further reduction of the cost and price of DMC, and the further strengthening of domestic environmental protection policies, the use of DMC to replace the highly toxic dimethyl sulfate as a methylating agent in the pharmaceutical industry will also be widely promoted, which makes the pharmaceutical industry the most potential future growth industry.

The fifth is the pesticide industry. China is a major producer of pesticides. With the acceleration of the adjustment of the pesticide industry structure, the country's requirements for pesticide safety will become stricter, and traditional highly toxic pesticides will gradually be replaced by non-toxic and low-toxic pesticide products. Therefore the application of DMC products as green and environmentally friendly intermediates in the field of pesticide production will have broad prospects.

The price trend in 2020 shows a completely different pattern

In 2020 the DMC market, in addition to the epidemic factor, there were impacts from various factors. The original market structure was broken, and the price took a completely different look. Figure 1 shows the comparison of East China DMC price trends from 2018 to 2020.

T2-1.

Figure 1 Comparison of DMC price trends in East China from 2018 to 2020

The first quarter was originally a low season. After the outbreak of the epidemic in February, the market became weaker and the trend was flat. Due to the short-term supply shortage in the second quarter and the improvement of the epidemic situation, domestic and foreign demand resumed to pull up. The offer rebounded above RMB7 000 /t, but the downstream acceptance was not high. At the same time, DMC's profit improved, supply eased, trading turned weak, and prices began to turndown, reaching the low point of the year in mid-June. However entering the third quarter, the transesterification method raw material cyclopropyl’s price rose fiercely and the cost pressure continued to increase. Due to the difficulty to purchase raw materials, many companies began to shut down for maintenance. Therefore DMC continued to rise all the way, reaching RMB14 500 /t, the highest price per ton of nearly ten years. However the overall downstream couldn’t accept such a high price. Only a few high-end industries purchased and the market demand is relatively insufficient. In this context, Zhejiang Petrochemical and Zhongke Huian began put their products on the market. Hence the market tension eased and prices quickly began to go down. After falling to around RMB9 000 /t, the price was again affected by the shutdown of some installations. It started to bottom out and rebounded, and the skyrocketing mode was reopened, all the way up to RMB12 600 /t; after that, there was no upward momentum anymore, and maintained overall downward trend in the last month of the year. Thereafter, even if the price of raw material propylene oxide rebounded which made relative manufacturers lose profit, the DMC price only stopped falling and remained stable. The price was consolidating around RMB7 500 /t at end of 2020 and the trend in the second half of the year was significantly different from the previous two years.

Five major production processes of DMC in China

The technology of China's DMC industry is basically developed, and the production processes mainly include five types: phosgene method, methanol oxidative carbonylation method, transesterification method, urea alcoholysis method and carbon dioxide direct oxidation method. Among them, the phosgene method has been basically eliminated, the urea alcoholysis method has a high industrial production cost, and the direct carbon dioxide oxidation method is still in the fundamental research stage.

At present, the main technology used by domestic DMC production enterprises is the transesterification method, which accounts for 60.3% of the production capacity; the methanol oxidative carbonylation method accounts for 23.5% of the total capacity; the urea alcoholification method accounts for 4.7%, and the coal-to-ethylene glycol by-product device accounts for 3.4%.

In the past ten years, the research and development of DMC and its derivatives has become one of the world's chemical research hotspots. There have also been many technological routes in domestic research and breakthroughs have been made, and the application area is also expanding. The direct synthesis of DMC from CO2 and methanol is the most economical and green process method. Compared with methanol oxidative carbonylation, this process does not have the problem of "explosive limit", it is relatively safe, and the raw materials are easily available, which makes it may become one of the more promising methods in the future.