A technological achievement covering the entire polyester fiber industry chain has just won China's highest scientific honor. On July 8, the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards were announced, with the project 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing in the Polyester Fiber Industry Chain,' led by Tongkun Group as the primary unit and jointly completed with ten institutions including Donghua University, winning the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This is the first time the textile chemical fiber sector has achieved this level of award in general fibers, signaling a shift from scale advantages to systematic technological self-reliance for an industry that produces 70% of the world's chemical fibers.
A Three-Dimensional Systemic Overhaul
The project, developed over more than a decade, focuses on building an independent technology system covering green manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing. In green manufacturing, it pioneered a PTA-PET direct-coupling low-carbon production model, replacing traditional heavy metal catalysts with environmentally friendly titanium-based catalysts and developing crude oil-based chemical fiber oils and green oiling technologies. This creates a full lifecycle low-carbon pathway from raw materials to finished products, potentially controlling energy consumption and pollutant emissions at the source.
On the intelligent manufacturing front, the project completed full-process automation upgrades and achieved large-scale domestic substitution of DCS control systems. Previously import-dependent distributed control systems now have a replicable 'China solution.' For downstream buyers, this directly impacts product quality consistency and delivery cycle stability—domestic substitution means a more secure supply chain and lower price volatility.
The most industrially transformative aspect is service-oriented manufacturing. The project created a 'multi-head, multi-tail' series-parallel composite polymerization technology platform, establishing a modular digital linkage system with 'one head, three tails' for multi-point addition. In simple terms, this allows a single production line to simultaneously produce multiple differentiated polyester fiber products, enabling multi-region collaborative agile manufacturing. For fabric mills and apparel brands, this means small-batch, multi-variety, quick-turnaround orders become more feasible, and customization is no longer a cost black hole.
From Lab to a 200-Billion-Yuan Market
To date, the project has formed a complete intellectual property system with 76 authorized invention patents, 10 software copyrights, and 14 national and industry standards. An expert panel of academicians has assessed the overall technology as internationally leading. More notable is the speed of industrial application: results have been promoted in industrial bases in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, and in more than 10 industry enterprises, generating cumulative new sales of over 200 billion yuan, profits and taxes of over 10 billion yuan, and export earnings of $1.8 billion.
Behind these numbers are real industrial changes. Reduced energy consumption and lower defect rates mean the cost structure of chemical fiber enterprises is being reshaped. For downstream textile companies, the stability of cost and quality of polyester fiber—the 'industrial staple'—directly determines fabric prices and garment profits. The low-carbon production model from this breakthrough will also help export companies address international trade barriers like the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
A telling detail: Tongkun Group, the lead unit, has been selected as one of China's first batch of 'Zero-Waste Enterprise' model cases. This sends a clear signal—future competition in the chemical fiber industry will not just be about volume and price, but about green manufacturing capability and intelligence level. Small and medium enterprises that fail to keep up with technological iteration will face increasing market pressure.
A Decade of Industry-Academia Collaboration
This award is not an isolated case. Between 2012 and 2020, 28 achievements in the textile field won National Science and Technology Awards, covering specialty fibers, intelligent equipment, and green dyeing. In 2017, a carbon fiber project led by Zhongfu Shenying won first prize, breaking foreign technological monopolies; in 2014, Shandong Kangpingna's digital yarn dyeing technology also won first prize.
What sets this polyester fiber project apart is its depth of collaboration. Led by Donghua University researcher Wang Huaping as the first completer, with deep involvement from Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Zhu Meifang's team, and in partnership with Tongkun Group and other research units, it formed a complete closed loop from 'university basic research to enterprise engineering transformation to industrial large-scale application.' Donghua University's State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials provided multidisciplinary support from materials science to information intelligence, while Tongkun Group offered scenarios for pilot scaling and market validation.
The biggest lesson for the industry is that single-link technological breakthroughs are no longer sufficient to build competitive barriers. Future competitiveness in the textile industry will come from full-chain system integration capabilities. From catalysts and oils to automation equipment, from process parameters to digital control, any weak link can become a bottleneck.