The world’s first 1,000-ton/year acetic acid-formaldehyde-based acrylic acid production pilot plant recently began operations, using the process technology provided by the Southwest Institute and the Celanese corporation, the plant successfully started operation at Shandong Yankuang Lunan Chemicals, achieving 72 hours of continuous and stable operation. This marks an important step for China’s green process of synthesizing acrylic acid via a non-petroleum route, successfully taking it from the laboratory to industrialization.

“Rich coal, lean oil, less gas” is a typical feature of China’s energy structure. The innovation of using a coal-based substitute for petroleum-based acetic acid formaldehyde to produce acrylic acid is green and innovative, which can effectively reduce the dependence on petroleum and alleviate the impact of the fluctuations in international oil prices on the production cost of acrylic acid. At the same time, it can further expand and improve the downstream industrial chain by using coal-based formaldehyde and acetic acid as raw materials, providing a new growth point for the coal-based chemical industry.

Acrylic acid is an important intermediate between bulk petrochemical products and refined downstream chemicals mainly used in fields such as construction, textiles, household chemicals, water treatment, petroleum, metallurgy, etc.