Hydrogen fluoride industry strict access conditions

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “conditions for access to the hydrogen fluoride industry (Consultation Draft)” on November 30th to solicit comments from the industry. The introduction of access conditions aims to increase the level of comprehensive utilization of fluorine resources, vigorously develop the resource-saving and environment-friendly fluorine chemical industry, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.

Internationally, the fluorine chemical industry is known as the “golden industry” because of its high performance and high added value. However, the fluorine chemical industry in China has long been large but not strong, with low end overcapacity and high end serious shortage. The situation is very severe. The main reasons for this situation are the repeated construction of domestic low-end fluorine chemical production equipment. At the same time, the high-end fluorine chemical products urgently needed in emerging fields such as domestic nuclear power and lithium-ion power batteries are heavily dependent on imports due to their inability to independently innovate.

The establishment of access conditions follows the principles of “controlling total volume, optimizing allocation, energy saving, safety and environmental protection, technological innovation, and sustainable development”. The draft of the Opinions proposes that, in terms of industrial layout, the new hydrogen fluoride production plant should have stable and reliable resources such as fluorite, must enter suitable industrial parks, and encourage the existing hydrogen fluoride production enterprises to relocate to the industrial park. It is forbidden to build new production enterprises that use primary hydrogen fluoride as the final product, and encourage deep processing and development of high-end fluorine chemical products.

In terms of production scale, the total scale of hydrogen fluoride for new production enterprises shall not be less than 50,000 tons/year, and the single production capacity of newly-built hydrogen fluoride production facilities shall not be less than 20,000 tons/year in order to achieve a reasonable scale economy. Newly built, rebuilt or expanded hydrogen fluoride installations should adopt advanced technology and use energy-saving and environmentally-friendly equipment.

The draft of the consultation also made specific provisions on energy conservation, consumption reduction, environmental protection, product quality, safety production, occupational health, and supervision and management. For example, the consumption of fluorspar (powder) per ton of hydrogen fluoride product in newly built, rebuilt or expanded production units shall not exceed 2.25 tons, water consumption shall not exceed 1 ton, and the average annual comprehensive energy consumption shall not exceed 450 kg of standard coal; Production, improve the level of energy utilization and the comprehensive utilization of fluorspar, fluorinated gypsum slag and other resources, the annual comprehensive utilization of fluorinated gypsum slag must be more than 90%, the water cycle utilization rate shall not be less than 95%. The existing hydrogen fluoride production enterprises should be transformed and must meet the above requirements by the end of 2013.