Fu Xiangsheng: The century-old history of the petrochemical industry is a history of innovation

Recently, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Normalization and Long-term Effectiveness of Party History Study and Education", which pointed out that carrying out party history study and education in the whole party is a major strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core based on a new starting point for a century-old party history and focusing on creating a new situation in the development of the cause. Last year, in order to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the party, experts and scholars in the petrochemical industry organized the compilation and publication of "A Hundred Years of Development History of China's Chemical Industry" and "Volume of China's Industrial History and Petroleum Industry" and "Volume of China's Industrial History and Chemical Industry." In the process of studying and educating on party history, we simultaneously carried out the study and research of the history of the petrochemical industry. Combined with my personal experience in party history, industry history and party class study, I will talk about the centenary of the petrochemical industry as a veteran of petrochemical science and technology innovation.

The petrochemical industry is a resource-based and energy-based industry, and it is also a technology-intensive industry. The overall technical level of the petrochemical industry and the technical and manufacturing level of its new chemical materials and fine chemicals are the embodiment and representative of the overall technical level and high-end manufacturing level of a country. Therefore, the petrochemical industry is an area where original innovation and technological progress are active and concentrated, and it is also a very important part of the innovation strategy of developed countries. Turning over the century-old history of China's petrochemical industry, throughout the world chemical industry, DuPont's 220th anniversary this year, it is with super innovation in the second centenary journey to achieve the transformation from gunpowder companies to material companies, the current global polyester, nylon and a variety of engineering plastics varieties are the first by DuPont invention and industrialization, today's new DuPont is moving towards the third centenary goal, but also with the innovation of leading strategy to become the leader in the field of specialty chemicals. BASF's 157 years, DSM's 120 years, and many world-class multinational companies such as Dow, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Leand basel have always been the world's leaders in the chemical industry with their own innovations.

Synthetic ammonia innovations in the fertilizer industry are highly representative

The teachers in the chemistry class told us that synthetic ammonia was first synthesized by the German chemist Haber in 1902, and then industrialized in cooperation with BASF's engineer Bosch. From synthesis to industrialization requires a series of innovations, from industrialization to large-scale, modernization requires continuous innovation. The path of innovation taken by China's synthetic ammonia and fertilizer industry is more difficult and more representative.

       First, synthetic ammonia started with difficult innovation. The beginning of China's fertilizer industry is represented by "South Wu Bei Fan", that is: in 1933, Mr. Wu Yunchu established in Shanghai Tianli Nitrogen Company used hydrogen from the Tianyuan electrolysis workshop to produce synthetic ammonia and then produce nitric acid; in 1937, Mr. Fan Xudong produced synthetic ammonia and ammonium sulfate in The Yongli Pygmy Sulfate Plant in Nanjing in 1937. The beginning of the new Chinese fertilizer industry was marked by the Lanzhou Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant, taiyuan nitrogen fertilizer plant and Jilin nitrogen fertilizer plant in the "156 items" built with the assistance of the former Soviet Union during the "First Five-Year Plan" period. Jilin nitrogen fertilizer plant was completed in October 1957, with a design of synthesizing 50,000 tons of ammonia / year and 90,000 tons of ammonium nitrate / year; Lanzhou nitrogen fertilizer plant was completed in November 1958, with a design of 50,000 tons / year of synthetic ammonia and 82,000 tons of ammonium nitrate / year; Taiyuan nitrogen fertilizer plant was completed in 1961, with a design of synthetic ammonia 52,000 tons / year, ammonium nitrate 98,000 tons / year. Now look at the annual output of 50,000 tons of synthetic ammonia scale, compared with today's annual output of 300,000 tons, 600,000 tons, it is very small and small, but according to historical data, the three nitrogen fertilizer plants built at that time were built successively, and their synthetic ammonia technology was the world's advanced level, and the scale was the largest in the world that year.

      Second, China's fertilizer industry has achieved leapfrogging by independent innovation. After Sino-Soviet relations broke down and the Soviet Union withdrew experts, China's synthetic ammonia and fertilizer industry embarked on a path of self-reliance and independent innovation. At the beginning of 1958, Chairman Mao proposed at the meeting to discuss the national economic plan and budget that chemical fertilizer plants could be set up at the central, provincial and special district levels. Peng Tao, the first minister of the Ministry of Chemical Industry at that time, personally organized technical seminars, because the production of ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate must be supported by the construction of sulfuric acid or nitric acid devices, with a large investment, a long construction cycle, and lead and stainless steel materials. Under the conditions of that time, the production of ammonium bicarbonate is more feasible, and in the process of use also found that the fertilizer efficiency of ammonium bicarbonate is better, Dr. Hou Debang invented a new process of "synthesis of ammonia raw gas and ammonia direct carbonization reaction to obtain ammonium bicarbonate" on the basis of "Hou's alkali method", so he carried out experiments with an annual output of 2,000 tons and 10,000 tons of synthetic ammonia in Shanghai and Beijing, and then built about 200 small nitrogen fertilizer plants of 800 tons and 2,000 tons in the country in the next two years. On the basis of practical operation experience and lessons learned, the nitrogen fertilizer design institute at that time proposed a design scheme of 10,000 tons / year of synthetic ammonia and 40,000 tons / year of ammonium bicarbonate