How is succinic acid prepared? Kangjinghui's editor will briefly introduce what succinic acid is and what methods are used to prepare it.
Succinic acid
Succinic acid, also known as amber acid, is a C4 platform compound. As an organic synthesis raw material, intermediate, or chemical, it can be used in many fields such as food, medicine, pesticides, dyes, fragrances, paints, plastics, and materials industries. In the pharmaceutical field, it is mainly used to produce drugs like erythromycin ethylsuccinate; in pesticides, mainly to produce plant growth regulators and fungicides; in food, mainly as a flavor improver for liquid condiments and refined products; in fuels, mainly to produce organic pigment phthalocyanine red, etc.
Preparation methods for succinic acid
Biological methods are generally used to prepare succinic acid, but compared with traditional chemical methods, microbial fermentation for producing succinic acid has many advantages and competitive production costs. Chemical synthesis methods for succinic acid mainly include paraffin oxidation, acetylene method, catalytic hydrogenation, and ammonium salt method.
1) Paraffin oxidation method
This is a traditional production method. Paraffin is deeply oxidized under calcium and manganese catalysis to obtain mixed dibasic acid oxidized paraffin. After steam distillation with hot water to remove unstable hydroxyl oil-soluble acids and esters, the aqueous phase contains succinic acid, which yields succinic acid crystals after drying.
2) Fermentation method
This uses starch, cellulose, glucose, sucrose, milk, or other waste materials that microorganisms can utilize as raw materials, and employs bacteria or other microorganisms to ferment and produce succinic acid and its derivatives.
3) Ammonium salt method
This is a process for producing and purifying succinic acid that does not consume large amounts of reagents or generate large amounts of byproducts; the ammonium sulfate byproduct can be recycled during production. The first step of production and purification is inoculating seeds into a fermenter, adjusting the fermentation broth to pH above 6.0 with NaOH, with pH 7.0 being optimal.
Note 1: This article is not investment advice; it's just a record of my own thoughts for later review. Investing carries risk—decide carefully.
Note 2: Unless otherwise noted, data comes from disclosure reports.
Prior posts: Chatting about chemicals (5)—fluorochemicals (1)—cryolite; Chatting about chemicals (6)—electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid (fluorochemicals part 2).
Preface
Refrigerants—English "Refrigerant"—so they generally start with R, like R134a, R22, etc. The numbers or letters after R relate to the refrigerant's chemical composition, representing element types, molecular ratios, and so on; the naming rules are fairly complex and not the point here.
In this preface, I want to share a piece of software whose main purpose is running thermodynamic simulations. It includes the physical properties of almost all refrigerants, so you can directly compare application scenarios and heat absorption effects of different refrigerants.
Why use this kind of research software to look up data? It's just my personal habit. Commercial software databases are accurate and rich in content—especially software made for a specific field, whose built-in database is far more trustworthy than data you randomly find online. Plus, opening the software is much more convenient than digging through papers.
If you're interested in this info, you can download it yourself to learn more. The software is called "EBSILON."
If you find this useful, thanks for sharing it
Main text
I. Industry history and landscape
Refrigerants have gone through four generations, which can be summed up in this table:
Generation | Type | Representative products
First | CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) | R11, R12
Second | HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) | R22
Third | HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) | R32, R410A, R134a, R125
Fourth | HFOs (hydrofluoroolefins) | R1234yf, R1234ze, R449A
R11 and R12 were the earliest refrigerants; Freon is their common name. They were eventually phased out due to pollution, toxicity, and various other reasons.
The second generation improved on the first's drawbacks but still had issues, so as transitional products they're being phased out faster.
The third generation is today's mainstream—many well-known refrigerants are third-generation, like R134a. But under international agreements, capacity is locked, leaving limited room for growth.
In April 2021, China announced it would accept the Kigali Amendment. Under its requirements, China must freeze production and use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs and HCFCs) at baseline levels starting in 2024, then gradually cut them according to a set timetable.
The national document "China's National Plan for Implementing the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (2025–2030)" lists clear targets:
As you can see, the third-generation refrigerant quotas are: production baseline of 1.853 billion tons of CO2 equivalent, and use baseline of 905 million tons of CO2 equivalent.
On top of the baseline, starting in 2029, third-generation refrigerant quotas are cut by 10% per year, and at least a 10% cut will already have been completed by the start of 2029.
In addition, by 2030, second-generation refrigerant capacity will retain only 2.5% for contingency needs.
Maintenance expiries: a look ahead to the November 2026 soda ash futures market.
Three caveats on the data:
"Futures discount narrowing to flat" and "the board is 25 above spot" appear in the same report. Those two statements point in opposite directions. I read it as a difference in basis (Shahe regional ex-works price vs. exchange delivery standard grade price, with freight and grade differentials in between). When citing, go by the specific numbers.
The causal claim that "the big inventory drop was driven by lower output" is questionable. Weekly output in the same period was +0.13% month-on-month (a slight increase), which contradicts "lower output." It could be a timing mismatch (inventory data lagging) or destocking coming from exports and restocking. I'd suggest checking the release dates of the inventory data yourself.
"Gross margin" and "cash cost" are not the same thing. Negative gross margin doesn't mean negative cash flow. To understand "why keep producing at a loss," you have to distinguish full cost from cash cost—this is where soda ash-type commodities are most easily misjudged.
Risks and conditions that would invalidate the view:
Concentrated restarts in early November (the biggest downside risk). This is the core concern explicitly flagged: "once maintenance units restart en masse from late month to early November... the market worries high-cost output will largely return after maintenance ends." This is the most specific, most verifiable risk in this window, and the reason the title is "maintenance expiry."
Second round of solar glass capacity cuts landing (downside risk). It was explicitly noted that "solar glass capacity faces a second round of leading-player capacity cuts in Q4, which still implies demand shrinkage for soda ash." Solar glass is the most important source of incremental demand for heavy soda ash; once it shrinks, the slight increase in float glass can't make up for it.
Capacity not cleared (structural downside risk). The key point: "unless capacity exits, the oversupply problem can't be fundamentally alleviated." Add in new planned capacity such as 5 million tons in Jinsha/Hubei Qianjiang for 2027–2028, and far-month supply pressure is still expanding.
Glass double-dip (downside risk). The view on glass is that "without more, stronger fresh positives, a brief stabilization could still be followed by a second dip." Glass is soda ash's biggest downstream; a dip there directly weighs on soda ash demand.
Cost center shifting lower (downside risk). Currently "strong thermal coal prices pushing the cost center up" is an important support. If coal prices fall back, the cost support line moves down with it—the rule that "it stops falling at cost" only holds if the cost line is stable.
Destocking driven by output cuts being disproven (downside risk). If checking shows recent destocking actually came from exports or downstream restocking, the "supply contraction" narrative weakens and price support fades with it.
Maintenance extended or new maintenance (upside risk). If Yuanxing's maintenance extends into mid-to-late November, or other producers join in maintenance due to losses, supply contraction continues and prices could break above 1,000.
Policy and cost-side surprises (upside risk). If domestic stimulus improves expectations for building materials demand, or coal prices strengthen further and push costs up, the price center rises.
The cognitive trap to watch most: mistaking "low valuation" for "low risk." Saying "valuation is low, there's cost support below" is correct; saying "strong support just above 900" is also correct. But "limited downside" doesn't mean "won't fall"—it only means "falls slowly, falls shallowly." In a commodity with persistent overcapacity and no clearing mechanism, "can't fall deep" and "can't rise" can coexist for a long time. That's exactly why both give a "range" rather than a "direction."
