A technological achievement covering the entire polyester fiber industry chain has propelled independent innovation in the textile chemical fiber sector to new heights. The 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award First Prize was awarded to the 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing in the Polyester Fiber Industry Chain' project, jointly led by Tongkun Group and ten other institutions including Donghua University. This recognition goes beyond a single technology, signaling that China's textile industry has built an autonomous, replicable, and scalable advanced manufacturing system for general-purpose fibers.
Background
The National Science and Technology Awards Conference announced the 2025 winners on July 8 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In addition to the first prize, Professor Elsa Reichmanis, Chair of the International Advisory Committee of Donghua University's State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials, received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China, making Donghua the only university to win two national-level science honors at this ceremony.
Historically, from 2012 to 2020, the textile sector secured 28 national science and technology awards, including 22 for progress in fields such as specialty fibers, smart equipment, and green dyeing. Previous first-prize winners include Shandong Kangpingna's digital automatic yarn dyeing technology in 2014 and Zhongfu Shenying's dry-jet wet-spinning carbon fiber technology in 2017. The current award is the first to cover the entire chain of polyester fiber—the 'industrial staple'—with strategic significance: China produces 70% of global chemical fibers, with polyester leading all categories. Upgrading this industry is critical for national economic security and carbon neutrality goals.
Industry Impact
The project, led by Donghua University researcher Wang Huaping and involving Tongkun Group, achieved breakthroughs after over a decade of collaborative R&D. Core innovations span three dimensions:
- **Green manufacturing**: Pioneering a PTA-PET direct-coupling low-carbon model, developing eco-friendly titanium-based catalysts and crude-oil-based spinning oils, and establishing a full lifecycle green standard.
- **Smart manufacturing**: Upgrading fully automated equipment, scaling domestic DCS control systems, and building an integrated quality management system.
- **Service-oriented manufacturing**: Creating a 'multi-head, multi-tail' series-parallel polymerization platform and a modular digital linkage system for customized production and agile multi-region coordination.
To date, the project has produced 76 authorized invention patents, 10 software copyrights, and 14 national and industry standards, with overall technology deemed internationally leading. Results have been deployed in industrial bases in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, and across more than 10 enterprises, generating over 200 billion yuan in new sales, 10 billion yuan in profit and tax, and 1.8 billion USD in export earnings. This data reflects significant reductions in energy consumption and defect rates, proving that the shift from extensive to refined, low-carbon polyester production is viable.
For downstream buyers, this means enhanced product quality stability and supply flexibility. Reliance on imports or single suppliers is diminishing as domestic alternatives achieve autonomy not only in equipment but also in process standards and system integration. The International Science and Technology Cooperation Award also signals that while China's textile industry pursues self-reliance, it deepens global collaboration—especially in fiber materials research—through talent training and academic platforms, boosting China's international influence in fiber science.