How did coal become a mask?

Ningxia is a small province, but a big coal province.

 

 

 

In China, Ningxia’s territory is in the last place, and the proved coal reserves are in the top 6, 1 / 4 of the territory.

 

 

 

Due to its geographical location in the “east of the west”, in the past, when the power and fuel were serious due to major disasters such as earthquake, ice and snow in the middle and East, Ningxia’s coal often gathered quickly and rushed for help.

 

 

 

But in the novel coronavirus pneumonia, Ningxia coal has participated in another form of masks, including the anti epidemic.

 

 

 

However, from the embodiment of black coal into the numerous and colorful “shield of life”, it has gone through the messy process of chemical reshaping.

 

 

 

In this sense, it is not difficult to understand that the leading coal chemical enterprises in Ningxia are classified as “key guarantee enterprises for national epidemic prevention and control”.

 

 

 

Ningdong power chemical industry base, located on the East Bank of the Yellow River in Ningxia, is the leader of coal chemical industry in China and even in the world. Here, the “plant skeleton” buried for hundreds of millions of years can change its shape freely. After traveling and changing in hundreds or even hundreds of kilometers of pipelines, “black to white” and “coal to oil” are nothing.

 

 

 

After the outbreak of coal chemical enterprises in Ningdong power chemical industry base, medical masks have become the most scarce medical materials for epidemic prevention and control. Using coal to produce polypropylene, a semi crystalline thermoplastic material, is the specialty of many enterprises in Ningdong power chemical industry base. After ablation and shaping, polypropylene becomes the material for making medical non-woven fabrics – high melting point polypropylene fiber material.

 

 

 

On February 9, Baofeng power, a listed company in Ningxia, urgently discussed the conversion of part of the production capacity of a set of polypropylene equipment to produce high melt index fiber polypropylene s2040.

 

 

 

Just five days later, on February 14, the first batch of high melting index fiber polypropylene s2040 with coal as the material was put off the production line. After testing, the fat dissolving index and other targets all reached the relevant requirements. Its single daily output is up to 1000 tons, and the non-woven fabric produced by 1 ton of high melting fiber polypropylene can be made into 900000-1 million disposable surgical masks or 200000-250000 N95 masks.

 

 

 

On February 21, the first batch of 1080T high melt index fiber polypropylene s2040 produced by Ningxia was loaded from the railway and sent to non-woven fabric manufacturers in Guangxi, Zhejiang, Sichuan and other provinces. These enterprises will process high melt index fiber polypropylene into non-woven fabric, especially melt blown fabric, which plays a crucial role in filtering masks, and then through electret treatment, it will become the raw material for downstream mask enterprises to make masks.

 

 

 

After the outbreak, in order to deal with the problem that there is no mask terminal product enterprise in Ningxia, the Department of industry and information technology of the autonomous region and other departments tried their best to coordinate Guangyu pharmaceutical, Quanshui pharmaceutical and other enterprises to build a mask production line. On February 18, after the arrival of relevant equipment, the relevant departments and bureaus immediately settled in the site office of the enterprise to coordinate the handling of transportation, financing, material supply, epidemic prevention and control and other difficult issues. After overnight debugging, the production line of this mask was quickly completed and put into production. According to reports, after further debugging, Guangyu pharmaceutical can complete 200000 masks per day.

 

 

 

At present, due to the lack of melt and spray cloth in the mask industry chain, Ningxia’s coal has become a mask, and a long-distance travel across provinces is needed.

 

 

 

The high melting finger fiber polypropylene s2040 produced in Ningxia is loaded and transported to the mask enterprises in the middle and lower reaches

 

 

 

However, on February 22, a leading coal chemical enterprise located in Ningdong power chemical base has vacated a workshop and started to build two production lines of plane ear band medical masks, one production line of folding masks (such as N95) and one production line of medical protective clothing. After the completion and production, the whole process from material to product will be completed, with a daily output of 320000 medical masks, 50000 N95 masks and 1000 sets of medical protective clothing. The first masks are expected to go offline on March 18.

 

 

 

From “fuel” to “material”, Ningxia coal’s performance under different urgent conditions is also a mirror of Ningxia’s industrial restructuring and high-quality development.