July 29 – According to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the first phase of the world's largest coupled demonstration base for nuclear energy and petrochemical industry will supply over 35 million tonnes of industrial steam annually. This will provide substantial, high-quality, low-carbon steam to the trillion-yuan petrochemical base in Lianyungang, with plans to replicate the results in the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area industrial clusters.
The base consists of the Jiangsu Xuwei Nuclear Heating and Power Plant and the "Heqi No. 1" steam supply system from Jiangsu Nuclear Power. Its primary target is the Lianyungang petrochemical industry base, one of the seven major petrochemical bases in China. This marks a shift from technical demonstration to standardized, large-scale application for comprehensive nuclear energy utilization in China.
Chen Jianhong, Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Chairman of the Trade Union of CNNC Suzhou Nuclear Energy, stated, "This is not just a technological upgrade, but a vivid practice of new productive forces in the energy sector." Under the "dual carbon" goals, carbon reduction in the petrochemical industry is imperative. The "nuclear plus chemical" approach targets a key need for green transformation in the chemical industry: industrial steam. Nuclear steam supply, which uses the heat from a nuclear power plant, is a new method to meet the steam demands of the petrochemical industry, reduce overall energy consumption, and lower environmental pollution.
In Lianyungang, CNNC has closely connected the nuclear power plant with the petrochemical base, bringing clean nuclear energy from the grid into industrial production. This offers a new solution for the chemical industry to overcome high energy consumption and high emissions, opening new development space for green and low-carbon transformation in industrial parks and high energy-consuming clusters in China.
The Jiangsu Xuwei Nuclear Heating and Power Plant is a globally unique project, featuring the first large-scale coupling of nuclear energy and petrochemicals, the first coupling of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) and a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), the first application of a "reactor-turbine-heat" coordinated control mode, and the first commercial application of an HTGR. The plant is designed for industrial heating as its primary function, with power generation as a secondary role. It uses the domestically developed third-generation PWR technology, Hualong One, and fourth-generation HTGR technology. By heating desalinated water with steam from the Hualong One reactor to produce saturated steam, and then reheating that steam with the HTGR's main steam, it generates three types of high-quality industrial steam with different parameters to meet the needs of the petrochemical park. Once operational, the plant will simultaneously provide high-quality steam and generate electricity. The first phase plans to build 2 Hualong One units and 1 HTGR unit.
The "Heqi No. 1" project uses steam from the secondary circuit of units 3 and 4 at Jiangsu Nuclear Power as its heat source. Through multi-stage heat exchange technology, it delivers steam at 1.8 MPa and 248°C via an isolated loop to the Lianyungang petrochemical base, 23.36 kilometers away. This project is the first global exploration of large-scale industrial steam production from a PWR unit. A key innovation is the real-time, precise matching of core power, steam supply power, and grid power. By developing reactor-turbine heat matching technology for large steam supply units, it solves the problem of slow reactor power response when a supply equipment failure causes a sudden, sharp drop in industrial steam flow.
"Heqi No. 1" also innovatively uses a dual-phase, counter-flow heat exchange technology with the largest single-unit capacity in China, achieving counter-flow heat exchange between cold and hot media. This increases the thermal efficiency of the nuclear power plant to 42%. To date, "Heqi No. 1" has supplied over 4.8 million tonnes of green steam to the Lianyungang petrochemical base.
Furthermore, CNNC has established China's first carbon footprint calculation system for nuclear industrial steam supply, giving each kilogram of nuclear steam a "green ID card." This precisely calculates the carbon emissions from the entire lifecycle and production process, from seawater to industrial steam. Data calculated according to domestic and international product carbon footprint quantification standards shows that the carbon footprint of nuclear steam is 1/600th that of steam from coal-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants and 1/100th that of steam from natural gas CHP plants. Nuclear steam is more effective in reducing emissions than nuclear power itself, has a stronger low-carbon advantage than chemical steam, and is greener than natural gas or hydrogen.
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