How big is the gap between China’s chemical industry and the world‘s advanced level?

After all, chemical industry is something of the first two industrial revolutions, and the technological pattern has been formed during the second industrial revolution. Most of the world's chemical giants can control the upstream and downstream, and they can continue to mix for many years with the technology.

Catalysts, reactors, chemical processes, automatic control systems... are not backward in general, but have a generational difference with foreign countries. A small part is OK, especially for heavy chemical equipment manufacturing.

The current domestic advantage is that the industry is large in scale, high in production capacity, low in labor costs, and the industry influence is constantly improving. After the start of Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical, it has already caused a considerable impact on the world industrial pattern. The scale of enterprises that have been built, are under construction and put into production are all large, and various giants also plan to build factories in China, such as Mobil. China is currently making efforts in heavy chemical industry, mostly refining and chemical integration, and ethylene projects are very eye-catching. Industrial parks and industrial integration have taken shape, and the pace of eliminating small chemical companies will accelerate. It is obvious that volume is the best way to win, trade is the priority, industrial scale is the second, and technology is the last.

The research and development of domestic chemical industry is indeed a short board. Fine chemicals basically use foreign formulas. In addition to European and American companies, Japanese and Korean companies are also crushing domestic companies in this regard. Most of the newly built large-scale integrated refining and chemical process packages are provided by Honeywell, and the technology and patents are also bought from the old international chemical giants. Joint ventures do not have access to technology. A joint venture between China and South Korea, the construction period is very good, the Chinese people pay the money, the start of construction is not smooth, the products are unqualified for a long time, and the losses are lost every day. A well-known Sino-foreign joint venture initially built an ethylene plant with full capacity and continuous production. There was no problem at all. The plant that was built in China was forced to stop every few months after driving once.

It is not that there is no domestic craft package, but most of them are not mature enough, and there is no chance to appear on the stage, and the real production data cannot be obtained. Many craft packages are factories on paper. Only state-owned enterprises will use domestic technology packages for experimental construction in some fields, and only state-owned enterprises have the ability to do so, mostly to ensure national security, but these experimental devices are not large.

The drawings of many domestic enterprises are copied and copied, and they are still copied and do not understand. In order to increase production, it is common to change drawings blindly. In order to reduce construction costs, it is not surprising to cut off some of the original design content. Some "engineers" will give priority to sacrificing the automation of process packages to reduce construction costs... The water is very deep, The basic principle is "it can be used, and there is no accident in the past few years", "the device is opened first, and the technical improvement will be carried out after the problem". Safety, energy consumption, and degree of self-control are not priorities for these "engineers". Most of them leave after winning the start-up bonus, and then they are gone. The Xiangshui accident is an example. There is a problem with the process interlock, and it will not be changed if it is found out. Many chemical plants simply rely on volume to make money, and do not consider technology upgrades at all, and product iterative updates.

I personally experienced a project last year, and the design institute was completely unhappy, and the owners were also a group of cattle. Even if the drawings are copied from others, it is not complete. The owner finds the drawings drawn by a few interns who are familiar with CAD, and then takes the construction. Part of the construction is done first, and then the owner makes up the drawings. Sao operation is very slippery. The whole construction process is also a lot of joy. The intern hired by the owner in the construction party's office is supplementing the drawings for the design institute. The scene should not be too dreamy. The best thing that design institute is to do is to designate the brand of equipment. For things with the same function, it has to designate foreign brands. The key imported products are not easy to use, but the price is ten times more expensive. After debugging the problem, the supplier came to a salesman who said, "This is imported, American."