Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: will actively promote the industrialization of the new process of titanium dioxide and the comprehensive utilization of resources

On August 25, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in its reply to the proposal No. 1341 of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese people's political Consultative Conference that titanium dioxide is widely used in a wide range of fields. it is an indispensable industrial raw material for the production of paints, plastics, papermaking and other products. The state attaches great importance to the development of titanium dioxide industry and actively promotes the industrialization of new processes and the comprehensive utilization of resources.

The details are as follows:

Letter on the reply to the proposal No. 1341 of the fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese people's political Consultative Conference (No. 197 of posts and Telecommunications of Industrial and Commercial Communications)

All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce:

Your "proposal on popularizing the use of hydrochloric acid extraction process to promote the green development of titanium dioxide industry" has been received. The reply is as follows: the Development and Reform Commission of Business, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the General Administration of Market Supervision:

Titanium dioxide is widely used in a wide range of fields, and it is an indispensable industrial raw material for the production of coatings, plastics, papermaking and other products. The state attaches great importance to the development of titanium dioxide industry and actively promotes the industrialization of new processes and the comprehensive utilization of resources.

I. on speeding up tackling key problems of core processes and pilot projects of new processes

The traditional production processes of titanium dioxide are sulfuric acid method and chlorination method, in which sulfuric acid method has been listed in the "guidance catalogue of industrial structure adjustment"; chlorination method requires high quality of raw materials and needs to be imported in large quantities from abroad. As a new technology, hydrochloric acid extraction has low requirements for raw material quality, short process, low cost and good development prospect, but the process is in the early stage of industrialization and needs to be improved in the aspects of environmental protection, product quality, plant operation stability and so on. In order to further enhance the level of intrinsic safety, energy saving, emission reduction and intelligent manufacturing in the petrochemical industry, and to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the industry, our Ministry has organized and carried out the selection of technologies and products encouraged to be popularized and applied in the petrochemical industry, and issued the catalogue of Technologies and products encouraged to be popularized and applied in the Petrochemical Industry (the first batch) (hereinafter referred to as the catalogue).

In the next step, our department, together with relevant departments, will pay close attention to the progress of technological research, development and industrialization of titanium dioxide by hydrochloric acid extraction. In addition, the core processes of titanium dioxide production, which have won national or provincial-level science and technology awards, mature and reliable technical level, intrinsically safe production process, and remarkable results in energy saving and emission reduction, will be popularized and applied by issuing the catalogue, and the relevant units may actively declare in accordance with the relevant requirements. Steady progress will be made in the pilot project of the new process.

II. On the implementation of strategic reserves and the improvement of industry standards

(1) on the inclusion of titanium dioxide in the national strategic resource reserve. China's ilmenite reserves rank first in the world, and it is also the largest producer and consumer of titanium dioxide in the world. At present, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Grain and material Reserve Bureau, together with relevant departments, are working out the national reserve development plan of the 14th five-year Plan, and will fully consider the suggestions put forward when determining the variety catalogue of national reserves during the 14th five-year Plan period. Carry out in-depth research and demonstration.

(2) on the formulation of relevant standards for the titanium dioxide industry. In order to support the green and healthy development of titanium dioxide industry, the relevant state departments actively build the titanium dioxide industry standard system. At present, standards such as "titanium dioxide pigment", "titanium dioxide for cosmetics", "nanometer titanium dioxide", "national standard for food safety, food additive titanium dioxide", "energy consumption quota of titanium dioxide per unit product", "technical conditions of titanium dioxide for plastic profiles" and other standards have been issued. Two industry standards, "requirements for Green Factory Evaluation of Titanium dioxide Industry" (2019-0052T-HG) and "treatment and disposal of waste sulfuric Acid produced in the production of Titanium dioxide" (2020-0423T-HG), are being organized and compiled. In the next step, the Ministry, together with relevant departments, will actively promote industry associations and standardized technical organizations to further speed up the development of relevant standards for the titanium industry, encourage the rational formulation of local emission standards, actively participate in the formulation of international standards, and constantly improve the standard system, to provide technical support for the optimization, adjustment, transformation and upgrading of the titanium dioxide industry.

III. On improving the efficiency of the use of ilmenite resources

The relevant departments of the state actively promote the comprehensive utilization of titanium resources. First, to promote the construction of comprehensive utilization bases, the Development and Reform Commission examined and issued documents such as "Major Scientific and technological Research and industrialization Project implementation Plan for Comprehensive Utilization of Vanadium and Titanium Resources in Panxi Strategic Resources Innovation Development Experimental Zone". Support Panzhihua City in Sichuan Province to build a comprehensive utilization base of industrial resources and actively promote the utilization of ilmenite associated rare metals; The second is to promote legislation on the comprehensive utilization of resources, and the Development and Reform Commission of the National people's Congress has entrusted the Development and Reform Commission to lead the legislative study on the comprehensive utilization of resources, centering on the legislative goal of comprehensively improving the efficiency of resource utilization and ensuring the security of national resources. it is proposed to speed up the comprehensive development and utilization of associated mineral resources such as ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and rare precious metals and cascade recovery of valuable components through legislation. The third is to strengthen technological research. During the 13th five-year Plan period, the Ministry of Science and Technology set up a key project of "solid waste recycling" and deployed the project "Technology of Source reduction and Resource Utilization of Vanadium and Titanium smelting Slag in Iron and Steel Industry". To build an integrated technology system for source reduction of vanadium-titanium smelting slag and large-scale utilization of tailings to support the green upgrading and sustainable development of China's iron and steel vanadium-titanium industry.

In the next step, the Ministry of Science and Technology will set up a key special project on "Development and Utilization of Strategic Mineral Resources" to solve the problems of unbalanced and insufficient utilization of valuable metals in associated strategic resources. New technologies and key equipment such as balanced utilization of valuable elements and efficient separation of vanadium and ferrovanadium in vanadium-titanium magnetite are studied to promote the development and application of high-value utilization technology of titanium resources. Our Ministry, together with relevant departments, will continue to promote the construction of the comprehensive utilization base of industrial resources in Panzhihua City, so as to effectively improve the efficiency of resource utilization.