On February 27, the high-tech center of the Ministry of Science and Technology convened the meeting for accepting the “Study on key technologies of Staged Refining Coal” under the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program) as undertaken by NICE.

Through reviewing all the materials, inquiries and discussions, the panel confirmed that the subject covers the research contents stipulated in the assignment document, while the evaluation indicators meet the standards of the acceptance requirements, therefore everyone unanimously agreed to accept the study.

The “Study on Key Technologies of Staged Refining Coal” is accepting the highest funds in terms of clean coal field under the National 863 plan, with RMB 52.22 million yuan earmarked by the state as well as a self-funded amount of RMB 60,000 yuan, launched in 2012.

The subject team’s main research results include: they developed a set of coal and liquefaction residue stepped refining process, clearly demonstrated in the 1,000-ton demonstration device. The blending quantity of liquefaction residue was 11.5%, the system thermal efficiency reached 80.2 %, and the liquid product oil yield reached 7.1 %. They also developed a number of key equipment and complete sets of technologies with independent intellectual property rights, such as the rotating disc pyrolyzer, rotary disc dryer, granular bed filter system in high temperature and hot carbocoal hoisting system. They studied the co-pyrolysis of coal and liquefaction residue as well as the catalytic pyrolysis process of coal, while making a number of innovative research results. They then proposed 13 general energy efficiency calibration and measurement methods for conversion of coal to clean fuels, which had passed the review of the panel organized by China National Coal Standardization Technology Committee.

Other participants in the “Study on Key Technologies of Staged Refining Coal” are: Tsinghua University, Northwestern University, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology and China University of Petroleum (Beijing).