Machinery industry is closely related to investment in fixed assets, and the demand for coal machines is also closely related to investment in fixed assets in coal mining industry.
From 2003 to 2007, the investment in fixed assets in China’s coal mining and washing industry increased at an average annual compound rate of 42.6%; In the first 10 months of 2009, China’s coal mining and washing industry completed an investment of 152.671 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47%.
Coal washing and processing is an effective way to improve the quality of coal products, meet the needs of users, improve the efficiency of resource utilization and implement environmental protection. It is an important measure to realize clean, efficient and comprehensive utilization of coal resources, and it is the basis and leading component of coal clean technology. A large number of practices show that the utilization coefficient of ironmaking blast furnace can be increased by about 4% for every 1% reduction in ash content of cleaned coking coal. When the washed thermal coal is used for power generation, it can save coal by about 10%, and SO2 can be reduced by 8% for every 0.1 percentage point reduction of sulfur. The washed anthracite can save 20%-25% coal when used in synthetic ammonia production.
Coal is the main energy and important raw material in China, and China is the largest coal producer and consumer in the world. In order to improve the utilization efficiency of coal and reduce the impact of coal production and consumption on the environment, China government has always encouraged the development of coal washing and processing, and promoted the clean and efficient utilization of coal. Since the founding of New China, especially in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, the coal dressing industry has developed rapidly. More than 2,000 coal preparation plants have been put into production in China, with a design capacity of about 900 million tons per year. The amount of raw coal washed jumped from several hundred thousand tons per year in the early days of the People’s Republic of China to more than 700 million tons, and the washing rate increased to more than 30%. Through years of self-development and absorption, the level of coal preparation technology and technical equipment has been continuously improved, and dense medium, jigging, flotation, moving screen technology and composite dry technology have been developed rapidly, forming a variety and series of washing equipment. China already has a number of advanced coal preparation technologies and technical equipment in the world.
However, compared with the demand of domestic coal washing products, especially with the requirements of resource saving and environmental protection, the development of China coal dressing industry is still not suitable. Mainly manifested in: the proportion of raw coal washing is low, only equivalent to 1/3 of the developed countries in the world; The ash content of coking clean coal and commercial power coal is about 9.5% and more than 20% respectively, which is much higher than that of the United States and other countries. The dense medium coal preparation technology has a low proportion, which is suitable for dry and water-saving separation technology in arid and water-deficient areas, young metamorphic coal and easily slimed coal. Small factory type, low efficiency and poor benefit. A large number of raw coal without washing is directly consumed, which reduces the efficiency of resource utilization, increases environmental pollution and wastes limited transportation capacity. China’s energy consumption per unit GDP is 2.4 times higher than the world average, and its comprehensive energy efficiency is only 33%, making it one of the countries with the highest energy consumption per unit. 90% of SO2 and 85% of CO2 in the smoke discharged into the atmosphere in China come from direct burning of coal. Thus, it is an urgent and arduous historical task for China to promote the clean production and utilization of coal and improve the efficiency of resource utilization and the level of environmental protection.
In the new century, on the basis of accurately grasping the development trend of the world, earnestly summing up the development experience and deeply analyzing the characteristics of development stages, the China Municipal Government put forward a people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable Scientific Outlook on Development, taking resource conservation as its basic national policy, emphasizing vigorously developing circular economy, protecting the ecological environment, accelerating the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, and persisting in economical, clean and safe development to achieve sustainable development. The “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” outlines that during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the energy consumption per unit GDP should be reduced by about 20%, and the total discharge of major pollutants should be reduced by 10%, and it is explicitly required to strengthen the clean production and utilization of coal and encourage the development of coal washing. The 11th Five-Year Plan for the development of coal industry proposes that the washing rate of raw coal should reach 50% by 2010. This not only points out the direction for the development of China coal preparation industry, but also provides brand-new opportunities and broad prospects.
During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China will vigorously develop coal washing and processing, optimize product structure, improve resource utilization efficiency and promote environmental protection. First, we should adopt advanced and applicable technologies, speed up the technological transformation of existing coal preparation plants, expand production capacity, and improve process technology, equipment level and product quality. Second, we should vigorously promote advanced and efficient dense medium coal preparation technology and build a number of coal preparation plants with world advanced level. Third, according to the characteristics of drought and water shortage in western China, dry and water-saving coal preparation technologies should be actively developed and applied to expand the coverage of coal preparation technologies. Fourth, we should speed up the development and application of separation technology for steam coal, change the situation that the proportion of steam coal in China is too low as soon as possible, and reduce the pollution caused by direct burning of raw coal. Fifth, we must improve the access system for coal construction projects. In the future, all new large and medium-sized coal mines must be equipped with coal preparation plants, and coal preparation plants should be rebuilt and expanded at the same time. Small coal mines should rely on large coal preparation plants or group coal preparation plants. Sixth, we should learn from the advanced management systems and methods of coal preparation industry at home and abroad, improve the level of intelligent monitoring and automation, and change the situation of too many people and low efficiency.