The market demand for n-alkanes continues to increase, and the industry has huge development potential

Normal alkanes refer to saturated hydrocarbons without carbon branches. They are a basic chemical raw material. They appear as colorless and transparent oily liquids. They are odorless and tasteless at room temperature. They have a slight petroleum smell after heating. The density and specific gravity are 0.86-0.905 (25 degrees). . N-alkanes can be divided into short-chain n-alkanes and high-carbon-number n-alkanes. The carbon number of short-chain n-alkanes is less than C20 and is mainly derived from aquatic algae and microorganisms; the carbon number of high-carbon n-alkanes is between C22-C32. Within the scope, it mainly comes from terrestrial higher plants.

According to the “China n-Alkanes Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report 2022-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, The upstream of the n-alkanes industry chain is raw material suppliers such as coal, kerosene, natural gas, and diesel fractions; the midstream is domestic n-alkanes processing manufacturers such as Fushun Petrochemical, Jinxi Petrochemical, Dongming Petrochemical, Daqing Petrochemical, Yufeng Chemical, and Dongde Chemical. ; Downstream are application markets such as chlorinated paraffin, lauric acid, brasilic acid, long-chain dibasic acid, nylon plastics, etc.; terminals are in industry, food, medicine, cosmetics and other fields. At present, there are two main methods for producing n-alkanes: molecular sieve dewaxing and isopropanol-urea dewaxing. Among them, molecular sieve dewaxing methods include Molex method and ISO-SIV method.

From the upstream of the industrial chain, domestic kerosene and diesel production have been relatively stable in recent years. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, my country’s kerosene production cumulative value from January to December 2021 was 39.44 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6%; from January to December 2021 China’s cumulative diesel output in March was 163.37 million tons, a cumulative increase of 2.7%. The stable development of domestic kerosene and diesel production has provided sufficient raw material supply for the domestic n-alkanes industry and laid a good foundation for the development of the n-alkanes industry.

From the perspective of the middle reaches of the industrial chain, my country’s n-alkanes production is currently mainly concentrated in East China. Domestic enterprises still have a large gap compared with foreign advanced enterprises in terms of production technology, innovation capabilities, product quality, and enterprise scale. From the downstream of the industrial chain, the main application market for n-alkanes in China is chlorinated paraffins. Chlorinated paraffins have the advantages of high cost performance, good electrical insulation properties, low volatility, and good flame retardant properties. In recent years, they have been used in cable materials and floors. It is widely used in materials, rubber, flame retardants, plasticizers, lubricants, coatings and other fields. At present, domestic chlorinated paraffin production capacity is showing a fluctuating growth trend. In 2020, domestic chlorinated paraffin production capacity has reached 2.012 million tons.

Industrial Analysis personnel said that in the future, with the continuous development of domestic chemical building materials, coal industry, coatings and other industries, the domestic market demand for chlorinated paraffin will increase. will continue to increase, and as the main raw material of chlorinated paraffin, the market demand for n-alkanes will also continue to increase, and the industry development prospects are good. Driven by market demand, the production technology level, product quality, and core competitiveness of domestic n-alkanes enterprises will continue to improve in the future, thereby promoting the continuous expansion of the domestic n-alkanes market and the industry’s huge development potential.