There are only two refined glycerin products in the global glycerin market: food-grade glycerin and industrial grade glycerin. The same is true for the domestic glycerin market: only the two kinds of refined glycerin products, namely, Gan Gan and Gong Gan.
The raw material for producing refined glycerin is crude glycerin. Raw crude glycerol has three sources:
(1) renewable new energy biodiesel production;
(2) fat decomposition of oleochemicals;
(3) crude glycerol produced by soap production.
Crude glycerol contains too much organic and inorganic impurities. Crude glycerin must be purified to make refined glycerin before it can be used as a raw material for other industries.
More than 99% of the world’s refined glycerin is produced by the traditional ultra-high vacuum distillation process. The boiling point of glycerol is 290 °C. The physical properties of glycerol high boiling point, despite the use of ultra-high vacuum distillation, glycerol distillation still consumes a lot of energy.
A simple distillation process with a low degree of vacuum is commonly used in China. The process reduces the vacuum by increasing the glycerol distillation temperature, thereby greatly reducing the simplified distillation of plant equipment investment.
There are three shortcomings of this simple distillation method:
- High energy consumption, large sewage discharge, and no perfect equipment for recycling impurities;
- The product quality is low, can only produce industrial grade glycerin products. Can not produce high-purity food-grade refined glycerin;
- Batch operation and manual operation. High labor costs.
The glycerin non-distillation process will be fully automated. According to the crude glycerin raw material index, each process data can be automatically adjusted by selecting the required product specifications in the console, and different types of refined glycerin products are produced. The new process uses advanced room temperature processing, which greatly reduces energy consumption and greatly reduces production costs. The new process is equipped with thermal energy and gas-liquid recovery devices, which not only greatly reduces emissions, but also increases the output value through the value of recycled materials.
The specific advantages are described in detail below.
Second, the advantages of non-distillation glycerin refining process
1, non-distillation glycerin refining process energy saving
(1) Deep energy saving.
The new process purifies crude glycerin at normal temperature or at a lower temperature. Compared with glycerin distillation, energy saving is more than 60%.
Glycerin has a very high boiling point: 290 ° C. Ultra-high vacuum distillation is to heat the crude glycerin to above 170 ° C and to carry out distillation under extreme vacuum conditions; the simple distillation method is to heat the crude glycerin to above 220 ° C and to carry out distillation under general industrial vacuum.
(2) Deep reduction.
a. Saving energy, directly or indirectly reduce sewage.
b. The new process recycles all recoverable substances (heat, fatty acids, salt, methanol, process water, etc.), in addition to reducing costs and increasing revenue, it also greatly reduces emissions.
2. Low cost.
Compared with existing products, the cost is about 40-50% of the cost of existing processing. It saves about 50-60% of the cost. Thereby increasing product profit.
Take industrial grade refined glycerin as an example: the cost is about 200-300 yuan / ton (RMB, the same below). At present, the domestic production cost is about 600-1200 yuan / ton, and the foreign cost is about 1800-2250 yuan / ton.
The new process has a greater cost advantage in producing food and drug grade products.
The new process has an absolute cost advantage in the production of new glycerin products.
3, the equipment costs are low
Equipment costs are low. The basic equipment with an annual output of 10,000 tons is less than 2 million yuan (excluding raw materials and finished products storage tanks, boilers, plant walls, flowers and plants, beautification lighting, fire safety, sewage pipelines, special anti-leakage loading and unloading site construction and other expenses).
The price of the equipment varies according to the manufacturer’s qualifications. The price of low-end equipment manufacturers differs greatly from that of mid- to high-end equipment manufacturers and foreign equipment manufacturers.
4. Production of new glycerin products
The new process has a unique feature. This feature is not present in existing glycerin refining processes worldwide (so there are only two specifications in the world: glycerin: industrial grade and food and pharmaceutical grade). It can produce user-friendly glycerin products according to the needs of the task. It is also a new product that is not available on the market and does not exist. Of course, the production of standard industrial grade and food and pharmaceutical grade glycerol is a must. The products produced by the new process will be divided into several grades, and each grade will be subdivided into several sub-levels. For example, food and pharmaceutical grade glycerin can be subdivided into food grade, pharmaceutical grade, chemical grade (reagent grade); and industrial grade glycerin, can be further subdivided into A, B, C, D and other secondary. The A grade is the best Gong Gan (high-end user), the B grade is slightly lower than the current Gong Gan (middle and high-end users), and the C grade is given to the middle and low end users (such as plastic, rubber, antifreeze, paint, sticky). Glue, steel, etc.), work D grade to low-end users (such as ink, road de-icing, etc.). In addition, glycerin products customized according to the indicators provided by users are classified as “user level”, such as ECH grade, methanol grade and other green chemical users.
Third, the cooperation mode
This can be used by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to collect the notice of the 2014 Sino-British Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing Industry Cooperation Project.
The two parties submitted application materials to the Ministry of Commerce and the UK Strategy Committee respectively. If the efforts are passed, the Chinese side supports 3 million yuan (the government and enterprises match), and the British side supports 50-80 pounds (equivalent to 5-8 million yuan). The funds supported by the respective countries may support the enterprises of their respective countries, but no matter what. More peace of mind and advantages than not through government cooperation.
Domestic enterprises undertaking national scientific research projects will bring intangible assets that enhance the qualifications of enterprises.
Foreign patents were obtained in March last year. Now we only need to cooperate with partner manufacturers to establish a small pilot plant (such as 100-200L/hour) to collect process data for industrial production and complete the entire industrialization process of system optimization, system integration, system simulation and system automation. This process takes about 1-2 years and is completed in about a year.
After the completion of the Chinese phase, it is possible to enter large-scale industrialization and build an industrialized large-scale glycerin refinery using new processes. And strive to set up branch factories in different regions of the country, and will promote the industry upgrade to the whole country.
Because of its great cost advantage, the company can make the company bigger and stronger through its own efforts. Enterprises can also take advantage of the advantages to open up new markets internationally.
The application deadline for the China-UK Sustainable and Advanced Manufacturing Industry Cooperation Program in the Ministry of Commerce of China is March 26, 2014, and the UK deadline is March 19. Therefore, there is not much time. In addition to being fully prepared as soon as possible, it is necessary to consult with the foreign parties and jointly develop the project implementation plan.
In addition to the support of national projects, if the company has the strength, it can also directly cooperate with foreign owners to carry out industrialization.
The process of industrialization, that is, collecting process processing information, is a process of system integration and automation step by step. The reason why there has been no preference for industrialization in China is that the foreign side is worried that it is not easy to do well in terms of confidentiality. It is difficult to design the production line and the entire factory in line with international regulations. As a result, the authorization or transfer to international users in the later stage will cause the enterprise to suffer huge losses that should not occur.
Fourth, the future of glycerin products
Glycerol is used in a wide variety of applications, and more than 1,500 glycerols are known for use. Glycerin is the most important raw material for renewable green chemical products in the world. However, the first thing to do, and what must be done, is glycerin refining, which is not suitable as a raw material for the production of green chemical products.
The use of glycerin will become more and more widespread and the dosage will be larger and larger. Glycerol refining will be of great use.
