Bulk gas has a wide range of application fields and the market size maintains a growth trend

Bulk gas refers to gas that can be used in industrial production in large quantities and has a purity of less than or equal to 99.99%. Bulk gas is an important basic raw material for modern industry. The upstream raw materials involve industrial waste gas, air, basic chemical raw materials, etc. The downstream industrial chain includes multiple application fields such as metallurgy, energy, electronics, semiconductors, chemical industry, biomedicine, and new materials.

According to the “2022-2027 China Bulk Gas Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2017 -In 2021, thanks to the development of electronics, chemical industry, metallurgy and other industries, the demand for bulk gas market continues to grow, and the scale of the industry will expand accordingly. In 2021, the size of my country’s bulk gas market will grow to about 148 billion yuan. It is expected that from 2022 to 2026, with the expansion of semiconductor, panel and other industries, my country’s bulk gas market will maintain an average annual compound growth rate of about 6.8%.

According to different preparation processes, bulk gas can be divided into two categories: air separation gas and synthetic gas. The low-temperature distillation method has the characteristics of low production cost, high product purity, mature technology, and easy large-scale production. It is currently the mainstream method of producing air separation gas. Synthetic gas is mostly produced by chemical reactions. For example, ammonia synthesis is the direct combination of hydrogen and nitrogen under high pressure, high temperature and the action of a catalyst.

Air separation gas refers to the industrial gas separated from the air using air separation equipment, mainly including nitrogen, oxygen, argon and other gases; synthetic gas refers to the industrial gas produced through chemical reaction, mainly including carbon dioxide, ammonia and gases such as acetylene. At present, synthetic gas is the mainstream product in the market, accounting for approximately 92.5% in 2021. But overall, in recent years, the market share of synthetic gas has shown a downward trend, while the share of air separation gas has been increasing year by year.

Electronic bulk gases refer to high-purity and ultra-high-purity bulk gases that can meet the requirements of the electronic semiconductor field. They are mainly used as ambient gas, protective gas, etc., including nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, etc. In the semiconductor manufacturing process, electronic bulk gases are used in large amounts and cover a wide range of links. However, electronic bulk gases require large investments, high technical/qualification barriers, and long operation cycles. The global market is mainly monopolized by international giants such as Linde, Air Liquide, and American Air Products. .

The construction and operation models of bulk gas stations are mainly divided into two types, one is the EPC model and the other is the outsourcing model. Industry analysts said that the main bulk gas-related companies in my country include Jinhong Gas, Hongxin Gas, Hangyang Co., Ltd., among which Hangyang The company is the leader in domestic air separation equipment. Bulk gases have a wide range of downstream application scenarios and huge market demand. In recent years, thanks to the development of the electronics and semiconductor industries, the market demand for electronic bulk gases has been strong. However, compared with foreign markets, the construction process of bulk gas stations in my country is slow, so it does not have a competitive advantage in the international market.