An interview with Wei Fei, chief of FLOTU (Fluidization Laboratory of Tsinghua University)

【CCN】 The Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Goals are having a significant impact on the petrochemical industry. Which industries do you think will benefit from the goals?

【Wei Fei】 In the medium term, chemicals that can further reduce carbon emission will be beneficial from the goals. In 2021, the prices of a large number of petrochemical products along the photovoltaic industry chain, including EVA, were rising, as people werre more aware that photovoltaic can replace traditional fossil energy in the generation of electricity at a more competitive cost for long time in the future. The growth rate of energy storage materials was also surprisingly big in 2021. It is believed that more new chemical materials, especially high-end materials, will attach importance to this section, and the chemical industry involved in this field will develop fast.

In the longer term, more disruptive technologies are needed to achieve the carbon neutrality goal set for 2060. Since the mission of carbon neutrality is very challenging, the petrochemical industry will give fundamental support to it, that is, products related to the industry will ride on the tailwind. 

【CCN】 In your opinion, what were the new trends of carbon reduction faced by enterprises and industries in 2021?

【Wei Fei】 Producers are making great efforts to convert the limited fossil resources, especially oil, into high-value-added materials and high-end chemicals, as they have been highly aware that adopting these resources as energy is not a sustainable and feasible approach. Under the circumstances, some high-carbon emission projects and extensive development models have been suspended. We must focus on producing low-emission and high value-added products. In addition, we should develop new chemical products or materials that can serve better in achieving the Carbon Peaking goal by 2030 and the Carbon Neutrality goal by 2060.

【CCN】 What other problems should we pay attention to when implementing the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategy?

【Wei Fei】 There are some severe problems. First, the western developed countries planned to achieve the goal of Carbon Neutrality in 2050, earlier than our schedule of achieving the goal in 2060. In fact, the carbon emission in western countries has been declining. Second, China has the largest carbon emission in the world. We should reduce carbon emission in the short term while maintaining the existing energy supply and keeping the development momentum of chemical materials. This is a very tough task. 

We cannot roughly reckon that coal and oil are not the main energy sources nowadays, as fossil energy is still a must to obtain materials and chemicals before achieving the Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality goals. If we put the idea aside, it will be in vain to talk about future development. And we all agree on this. Today, we need more revolutionary breakthroughs to solve the problem.

【CCN】 Can the current domestic technical level and industrial scale meet the requirements for energy materials under the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategy?

【Wei Fei】 It is very difficult for our country to fully achieve carbon neutrality with current technologies, so we should develop technologies more boldly, which, however, has not aroused much attention from industrial players. Although we have done well in basic research and have published many excellent papers, there is still a long way to go to make roadmap, develop and upgrade more efficient technologies, and solve the problem of carbon neutrality, especially the problem of energy storage.

【CCN】 Which new technologies related to the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategy catching your team’s eyes?

【Wei Fei】 In general, there are three kinds of new technologies we focus on:

First, technologies that can produce energy storage and energy conversion materials with fossil resources as raw materials, such as next-generation battery materials, super capacitor materials, electrocatalytic materials, etc.

Second, new technologies that can reduce emissions for traditional chemical processes and further increase the added value of products. It is widely known that 60-70% of the carbon emissions are generated in the process of chemicals production. Introducing some new technologies to the traditional technology routes can effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For instance, the multistage countercurrent downer directly produces olefins and aromatics with crude oil, and the carbon dioxide emission by it is only 1/3 of that generated by steam cracking. However, it is not an easy thing to promote this innovation based on traditional technologies. We have been working on it for 40 years and we will persist in it in the future.

Third, disruptive technologies that use renewable energy and chemical technologies to convert carbon dioxide into high value-added chemicals. We are developing a technology that directly adds hydrogen in carbon dioxide to produce aromatics and biological aviation coal. We hope to hold a leading position in the industry by making breakthroughs in these disruptive technologies.

【CCN】 The central government issued a guiding document of the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality" strategy and "1+N" policy framework in 2021. The document will be amended continuously in 2022 and specific implementation plans may also be published in the petrochemical industry. What do you suggest?

    【Wei Fei】 I suggest that we should highly regard the strategic role of new technologies in carbon peaking and carbon emission reduction. In fact, many technologies can reduce emissions multiple times of before. However, they released high emissions when they were yet to be mature. We should allow the growing technologies to take time to catch up with mature technologies, but many of the industrial application technologies are utilitarian and do not go through the process of R&D, which makes it quite difficult to do technical verification for the achievements of our independent research and development. Therefore, supportive policies and regulations are badly needed to promote the maturity of disruptive technologies.          

(China Chemical News (CCN) is the Sister magazine of CCR. It is a comprehensive chemical journal in Chinese and also belongs to CNCIC. )