Calcium carbonate is the most widely used and largest market demand inorganic non-metallic mineral powder. There are heavy calcium carbonate, light calcium carbonate and nano calcium carbonate in industry. China’s annual output of calcium carbonate is second only to the United States, accounting for the second place in the world. It is a big country in the production of calcium carbonate, but it is still not a strong country of calcium carbonate production. At present, the domestic ordinary calcium carbonate production capacity is still in excess, and the national environmental protection, safety supervision, green mines and other policies are increasingly strict. The rectification of calcium carbonate industry in all over the country has entered a substantive stage. The “small, scattered, disordered and polluting” enterprises are basically on the edge of elimination, and the production capacity is gradually approaching the large enterprises with strong capital and strength. In the future, China’s calcium carbonate industry, products and production equipment will be developed as follow trends:
1、Overall development trend of calcium carbonate industry
（1）The driving force of industrial development will be changed
China’s calcium carbonate industry has been in the factor driven and extensive growth mode for a long time. The consumption of resources, energy and environmental pollution are serious, which is far from the requirements of new industrialization with high scientific and technological content, good economic benefits, low resource consumption and less environmental pollution. In the next few years, under the dual driving of external policy adjustment and internal competition pressure, the development mode of calcium carbonate industry will gradually change to innovation driven, relying on scientific and technological progress, using advanced equipment and technology, with the help of industrial parks, to develop in the direction of large-scale, intensive, low energy consumption and low emission.
（2）The industrial layout will be greatly adjusted
With the promotion of national development concept and the strengthening of environmental governance, China’s major calcium carbonate production areas in recent years, such as Jingxing in Hebei Province, Quzhou, Jiande, Changshan in Zhejiang Province and Zibo in Shandong Province, are facing great environmental pressure. Especially, the atmospheric environment treatment is becoming more and more strictly in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The calcium carbonate industry will face increasingly urgent environmental pressure, industrial agglomeration and industrial transfer be imperative. Generally speaking, the production center of China’s calcium carbonate industry will shift to the central and western regions, and Guangxi, Sichuan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan and other regions will become the main undertaking areas for the transfer and development of calcium carbonate industry
（3）Industrial agglomeration will be further improved
In the past, China’s calcium carbonate enterprises developed spontaneously around the origin of resources. For a long time, they were in a situation of small, scattered and disorderly distribution. After long-term rectification, merger and reorganization, especially in the past five years, many small, scattered, disorderly and dirty enterprises have been eliminated, and the industrial agglomeration has been significantly improved. However, compared with the international advanced level, it is still insufficient, such as Omya in Switzerland, imeries in France, SMI in America and Shiraishi in Japan Leading enterprises. The involvement of these aircraft carrier enterpr At present, China’s top 500 enterprises such as Zhengwei international and MCC group are respectively investigating calcium carbonate projects in Guangxi, Anhui and other places, and are expected to invest in calcium carbonate industry. ises is expected to further improve the agglomeration degree of calcium carbonate industry and promote the development of calcium carbonate industry.
（4）Industry access threshold will be stricter
On October 30, 2019, the national development and Reform Commission issued the catalogue of industrial restructuring (2019 version), which listed calcium carbonate projects as restricted items, which means that new and expanded calcium carbonate projects will face more stringent supervision, and even new and expanded calcium carbonate projects will be prohibited in many areas. Local governments and calcium carbonate industry associations will further formulate more stringent access threshold to regulate the sustainable development of the industry.
Recently, the capacity admittance threshold proposed by the rectification of calcium carbonate industry in many places: 300000 tons / year for heavy calcium carbonate, 200000 tons / year for light calcium carbonate, 100000 tons / year for single line production capacity, and 50000 tons / year for nano calcium carbonate.
（5）Green development has become the main direction of industry development
Calcium carbonate industry should further implement the concept of ecological priority and green development, vigorously develop circular economy, and strive to build a resource-saving and environment-friendly industrial system. Energy consumption and environmental pollution can be reduced by cascade utilization of energy and clean energy. By optimizing the layout of the park, product structure, process technology and equipment, scheduling management, the connection and matching in energy and logistics between calcium carbonate enterprises and calcium carbonate enterprises, mines, building materials and other related enterprises can be realized, so as to reduce material and energy consumption, and take the road of new industrialization with high scientific and technological content, good economic benefits, low resource consumption and less environmental pollution.
During the “14th five year plan” period, the energy consumption (standard coal) of calcium carbonate industry is controlled at 175KG / T (sedimentation volume is 2.5ml per gram of product); main material consumption, limestone consumption < 1.30t/t, water consumption < 4m3 / T; normal production wastewater zero discharge, under special circumstances, the wastewater reaches pH = 6-9, suspended solids concentration ≤ 50mg / L, cod ≤ 50mg / L, ammonia nitrogen mass concentration ≤ 10mg / L, total The results showed that the mass concentration of sulfur dioxide was less than or equal to 20 mg / m3, the mass concentration of nitrogen oxide was less than or equal to 20 mg / m3, the mass concentration of nitrogen oxide was less than or equal to 20 mg / m3, the mass concentration of nitrogen oxide was less than or equal to 20 mg / m3.
2、Development trend of calcium carbonate products
In July 2020, the latest “global calcium carbonate industry” released by market research company reportbuyer showed that despite the impact of the new epidemic crisis, the global calcium carbonate market is expected to reach 23.8 billion US dollars in 2020 and 32.6 billion US dollars by 2027, with an average annual compound growth rate of 4.6%. In 2020, the US calcium carbonate market will reach US $6.5 billion, accounting for 27.12% of the global market. It is estimated that by 2027, the market size of China’s calcium carbonate will reach 6.6 billion US dollars, with an average annual compound growth rate of 7%.
Based on novel coronavirus pneumonia and its economic impact, the paper making will use calcium carbonate market to expand at an average annual compound growth rate of 4.7%, and reach 16 billion US dollars by 2027. The average annual compound growth rate of calcium carbonate for coatings is 5% in the next seven years, which currently accounts for 13% of the global calcium carbonate market. The market share of calcium carbonate for plastics is 8.9%, and the compound annual growth rate is expected to be 4.5% in the next seven years.
（1）Light calcium carbonate
By the end of 2019, there are more than 200 light calcium carbonate manufacturers in China, with a total capacity of 8.5 million tons and an actual output of 7.2 million tons. As a whole, light calcium carbonate has entered the development platform period. Product upgrading, technical innovation, energy saving and consumption reduction have become the development direction of the industry. In the future, efforts should be made to develop fine, functional and specialized products with large demand, high technology content and high added value.
（2）Nano calcium carbonate
In 2019, the production capacity of nano calcium carbonate will reach 1.5 million tons, and the actual output will be about 950000 tons. According to the application fields of the products, the price of each ton of products is 1500-3500 yuan, which has a larger profit margin than ordinary light calcium. It is mainly used in high-end rubber and plastic products, papermaking, silicone rubber, automobile chassis paint, ink and other industries, and the product performance basically reaches the world advanced level.
As a high-end product in series of calcium carbonate products, nano calcium carbonate will gradually replace ordinary calcium carbonate in many fields, and has a good market prospect. It is estimated that the annual growth rate of demand for nano calcium carbonate in China will be 5% – 10% in the next few years.
（3）Heavy calcium carbonate
The production capacity of heavy calcium carbonate is 26 million tons / year, and the actual output is 22 million tons / year. The production capacity of ordinary heavy calcium has been saturated, and the product price is low, and the technology content and added value are not high, so it is not suitable to expand the production on a large scale. The domestic production capacity of superfine and activated heavy calcium can not meet the demand, so it still has great market potential.
High quality ultra-fine calcium can replace some relatively expensive light calcium or even nano calcium in some fields, and can also be mixed with part of ultra-fine calcium in the production process of light calcium or nano calcium, so as to reduce production costs, improve product quality, broaden application fields, reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
3、Development trend of calcium carbonate production equipment
In the future, calcium carbonate production plant will be further developed to large-scale, continuous and intelligent direction. It is necessary to stabilize product quality, reduce energy and material consumption, improve production efficiency and realize clean production.
The capacity of a single set of intelligent European mill can reach 400000 tons / year, and the continuous and automatic production has been realized. However, due to the complexity of its own process, there are still a lot of technical bottlenecks in the large-scale, continuous and intelligent production of light calcium.
The limestone calcination, carbonization, dehydration and packaging processes have been basically automated, while the lime milk digestion, product drying and other processes mainly rely on manual control, so the automation level of the whole device needs to be further improved. With the maturity of 5g communication, Internet of things and big data technology and deep integration with traditional industry, calcium carbonate production will enter the intelligent era.
At present, the single line 100000 t / a production units are simply accumulated by small production units, such as 27-30 centrifuges for dehydration process and 16 carbonization towers for carbonization process. The excessive number of equipment brings troubles to production control management and is not conducive to stable product quality. Therefore, it is urgent to develop large-scale equipment suitable for large-scale production.
The continuous carbonization unit is an important bottleneck for the continuous production of light calcium carbonate. The main controlling factors are liquid backmixing, gas distribution, channel blockage and scarring in continuous carbonization process. Multiple column series processes can be considered, liquid phase series, gas phase parallel, and gas-liquid counterflow continuous reaction.
However, it must be pointed out that there is still a big gap between China’s calcium carbonate industry and the new industrialization requirements of high scientific and technological content, good economic benefits, low resource consumption and less environmental pollution. In the future, we should further optimize the industrial structure and layout, increase basic research and engineering technology development, establish and implement the access threshold, cultivate well-known brands, and actively promote the “integration of industrialization and industrialization”, so as to further consolidate and enhance China’s status as a big and powerful country in calcium carbonate production.
Source: Liu Baoshu, Hao Zhigang, Ma Yongshan, et al. Review and trend analysis of China’s calcium carbonate industry in the past 60 years [J]. Inorganic salt industry, 2020,52 (10): 37-43