Confronted with intensified homogeneous competition across the petrochemical industry and urgent demands for product structure upgrading, Qilu Petrochemical accurately captured emerging opportunities in the new energy sector.
Driven by explosive growth in global new energy vehicles and electrochemical energy storage power stations, high-end carbon materials — core raw materials for lithium-ion battery anode components — face severe supply shortages worldwide. Leveraging its decades-long technical and production advantages in petroleum coke manufacturing, Qilu Petrochemical launched a strategic layout into high-end carbon materials to break long-term industrial development bottlenecks caused by homogeneous low-margin refining products.
This strategic shift is regarded as a core solution to escape cut-throat homogeneous competition. It also unlocks massive profit potential by converting traditional low-value "black gold" petroleum coke into high-value new energy raw materials. To guarantee smooth strategic implementation, the company set up a cross-functional joint R&D team covering production, sales and technical research departments to carry out end-to-end industrial technical breakthroughs.
With zero mature in-house experience in high-end carbon material production, Qilu Petrochemical assembled a research team composed of frontline producers, technical engineers and R&D staff. The team conducted multiple field visits to peer petrochemical enterprises to learn mature production workflows and quality control standards.
During return trips after on-site exchanges, the team focused on the core technical pain point of raw material adaptability. They iteratively revised critical process parameters and brainstormed targeted solutions for bottleneck production defects accumulated in trial tests.
Increasing the blending ratio of oil slurry was confirmed as the decisive factor for improving finished carbon material quality. Engineers from Shengli Refinery screened massive historical production data of delayed coking units and finalized a verified solution to raise oil slurry blending proportion. Stacked technical documents and detailed test records documented every iteration of trial and error in the research process.
Technical obstacles persisted in raw material supply. To offset insufficient oil slurry output in a single production zone, Shengli Refinery optimized inter-plant logistics and opened cross-region raw material mutual supply pipelines, transferring surplus oil slurry from the northern production zone to the southern zone to stabilize raw material supply for carbon material trials.
Compared with conventional petroleum coke which requires a 20-hour delayed coking production cycle, carbon materials dedicated to energy storage batteries demand far stricter operating conditions. The production cycle needs to be extended to more than 24 consecutive hours, with real-time closed-loop control of reaction temperature, system pressure and material circulation ratio throughout the whole process. Tiny parameter deviations will lead to unqualified anode carbon materials.
After multiple rounds of closed-loop PDCA technical trials and process adjustments, Qilu Petrochemical independently developed qualified carbon materials exclusive for energy storage devices. The achievement clarified the high-value upgrading path for existing delayed coking units, diversified product portfolios of traditional refining equipment, and realized dual breakthroughs in product structure optimization and economic profit growth.
Product quality was verified via dual testing of third-party authoritative institutions and downstream market applications. In late June, professional petrochemical testing authorities released inspection reports showing Qilu Petrochemical’s dedicated energy storage carbon materials own an outstanding caking index, far exceeding mainstream peer products. The material can effectively extend the cyclic service life of lithium-ion batteries for energy storage and new energy vehicles.
To expand downstream market channels, Qilu Petrochemical established close collaborative mechanisms with Sinopec internal sales branches to target new energy material manufacturers. After successful small-batch sample testing and performance verification by downstream clients, buyers placed formal large-scale bulk procurement orders.
This commercial milestone completed the complete industrial chain layout: crude oil refining → lithium battery anode carbon material → new energy battery manufacturing. It marked a pivotal step for Qilu Petrochemical to realize refined product diversification and profit growth through technological innovation.
On the delivery day of the first batch of finished high-end carbon materials, all members of the joint R&D team monitored outbound loading on-site, marking the official launch of the company’s new energy material business.
Backed by abundant Shengli crude oil inherent resource advantages, Qilu Petrochemical is building a coordinated multi-unit production matrix for differentiated high-end carbon materials:
This diversified clustered layout will accelerate Qilu Petrochemical’s transformation from a traditional crude oil refiner to a nationally leading high-end carbon material industrial base, helping it capture long-term dividends from the global new energy industry.
