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DAQING, February 27 -- Pipeline maker Hanwei Energy Services plans to use its fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP) expertise to expand into flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) markets and to develop a line of wind turbine blades for China's US$4.6 billion wind turbine blade industry.
The company's only manufacturing plant, located near the Daqing oil field, Heilongjiang province, presently supplies China National Petroleum Corp and its subsidiaries with around 1,600km (1,000 miles) FRP pipeline a year.
But the company says it seeks to diversify its business in 2007.
"There is strong market demand and Chinese government support for the introduction of technology and products that will increase the efficiency of the energy industry and decrease the environmental damage caused by energy production and consumption," says the company.
"Coal fired plants account for approximately 70% of China's electricity and are responsible for about 50% of China's SO2 emissions. The Chinese government has mandated that all of China's coal fired plants install pollution emission controls by 2010," says Hanwei.
Hanwei's initial product for the coal sector is FRP spray headers for FGD systems, which scrub SO2 emissions from coal-fired plants. In 2007, Hanwei plans to establish a production facility in Beijing to produce FRP products - during 2006
it completed the design and testing of FRP FGD spray headers, and sold the headers on a small scale. The company plans to complete the move of three existing production lines from its Daqing plant to Beijing and commence commercial production of FRP FGD spray
headers by the end of May 2007.
US$4.6 billion wind blade potential
According to Hanwei, the China market will need close to 19,000 wind turbines to reach its target of 30,000MW installed wind capacity by 2020. Hanwei says it could generate approximately RMB2 million (US$260,000) per blade system, valuing the China market at around US$4.6 billion by 2020.
"Fibreglass composites, including FRP products, are commonly used to produce wind power blades because of their weight and strength characteristics," says Hanwei. The company says it is conducting research regarding the acquisition and development of manufacturing technology for wind power blades and is considering the feasibility of producing wind power blades in Daqing. |
