The 2025 National Science and Technology Awards have bestowed two major honors on the textile sector: the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. The former was won by the 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing of the Polyester Fiber Industry Chain' project, led by Tongkun Group in collaboration with ten institutions including Donghua University. The latter was awarded to Professor Elsa Reichmanis, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, for her long-term cooperation with Donghua University. This marks the first time a full-chain polyester fiber technology has achieved the top national science prize, signaling that the industry's technical system has reached a globally leading level of autonomy and integration.
Double Awards: A National Endorsement for the Chemical Fiber Technology System
The First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award is highly selective, requiring both significant industrial impact and original technological innovation. Previous textile winners, such as Zhongfu Shenying's carbon fiber project (2017) and Kangpingna's digital dyeing project (2014), focused on breaking foreign monopolies or single-point process breakthroughs. In contrast, this year's winning project covers the entire polyester fiber chain—from raw material (PTA) through polymerization, spinning, and texturing—and integrates green, intelligent, and service-oriented manufacturing. It is the first 'chain-type' technology system to win, indicating that industry competition has shifted from individual breakthroughs to system-level integration.
Simultaneously, the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award to Professor Reichmanis underscores the textile industry's growing reliance on fundamental research and global talent. She has not only connected Donghua University with top global academic networks but also enhanced the international influence of China's fiber discipline through joint talent training and international conferences. For the industry, this signals that future technological barriers will increasingly require cross-border, interdisciplinary collaboration.
Three Major Breakthroughs: How Green, Intelligent, and Service Manufacturing Reshape the Industry
The project's core value lies in addressing the long-standing pain points of high energy consumption, high emissions, and low flexibility in the polyester fiber chain. In green manufacturing, it pioneered a direct PTA-PET coupling low-carbon model and developed environmentally friendly titanium-based catalysts, directly reducing carbon emissions and wastewater. For buyers, this means upstream suppliers' carbon footprint data will become more transparent, meeting green compliance requirements for markets like the EU.
In intelligent manufacturing, the project achieved domestic replacement of DCS control systems and established an integrated process-quality management system. For factories, this reduces reliance on expensive imported automation equipment, and its 'replicable and scalable' nature means small and medium-sized enterprises can also upgrade through technology licensing, not just large players.
In service-oriented manufacturing, the 'multi-head, multi-tail' series-parallel composite polymerization platform enables rapid switching between different differentiated polyester fibers (e.g., micro-denier, flame-retardant, antibacterial) on the same production line. For foreign trade companies, this directly shortens new product development cycles, allowing quicker response to overseas orders for small batches and multiple varieties.
Economic Impact and Industry Implications: Data Behind the Chain's Reshaping
According to publicly available industry data, the technology has been deployed in over 10 enterprises across Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, generating cumulative new sales of over 200 billion yuan, profits and taxes exceeding 10 billion yuan, and export earnings of 1.8 billion US dollars. These figures reflect subtle shifts in the industry landscape:
- Cost advantages: Reduced energy consumption and defect rates make domestic polyester fiber more price-competitive, further consolidating China's position of producing 70% of global chemical fiber.
- Regional clustering: Xinjiang's inclusion as a new industrialization base suggests the technology facilitates relocating capacity to raw material-producing regions (e.g., PTA hubs in the northwest), optimizing national layout.
- Brand upgrading: Tongkun Group's recognition as a national 'Zero-Waste Enterprise' and 'Service-Oriented Manufacturing Demonstration Enterprise' means its downstream customers (e.g., apparel brands) gain clearer sustainability certification when sourcing.