The 2025 National Science and Technology Awards were announced, marking a historic moment for the textile chemical fiber sector. The project 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing of Polyester Fiber Industry Chain', jointly developed by Tongkun Group, Donghua University, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and seven other institutions, won the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This is the third time the textile industry has achieved this top honor, following carbon fiber in 2017 and bobbin yarn dyeing in 2014, but this breakthrough is more profound—it covers the entire polyester fiber chain, which accounts for 70% of China's chemical fiber output.
Technical Breakthrough: From 'Industrial Staple' to Full-Chain Autonomous System
Polyester fiber is considered the 'industrial staple' of the textile industry, ranking first among all chemical fiber types. China produces 70% of the world's chemical fiber, making the continuous upgrade of the polyester fiber industry crucial for national economy and people's livelihood. The project, led by Donghua University researcher Wang Huaping and deeply involved by Academician Zhu Meifang's team, took over a decade of collaborative research to build an autonomous advanced manufacturing system.
Core breakthroughs focus on three dimensions:
- **Green Manufacturing**: Pioneered a PTA-PET direct-coupled low-carbon manufacturing model, developed environmentally friendly titanium-based catalysts and engineering applications, established full lifecycle green standards, and opened up the entire low-carbon production process.
- **Intelligent Manufacturing**: Completed full-process automation equipment upgrades, achieved large-scale domestic substitution of DCS control systems, established an integrated process and quality management system, and formed a replicable industrial upgrade plan.
- **Service-Oriented Manufacturing**: Pioneered a 'multi-head multi-tail' series-parallel composite polymerization technology platform, created a 'one-head three-tail' multi-point addition process modular digital linkage system, enabling differentiated product customization and multi-region collaborative agile manufacturing.
To date, the project has formed a complete intellectual property system including 76 authorized invention patents, 10 software copyrights, and 14 national and industry standards. An academician expert panel assessed the overall technology as internationally leading.
Industrial Implementation: Demonstrative Effect of Over 200 Billion Yuan in New Sales
The ultimate value of technical breakthroughs lies in industrial transformation. The results have been promoted in industrial bases in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Xinjiang, and more than 10 other units, generating over 200 billion yuan in new sales, 10 billion yuan in profit and tax, and 1.8 billion USD in export earnings. What does this mean? For buyers, green and intelligent upgrades directly reduce unit energy consumption and defect rates, ensuring more stable quality and controllable costs. For factories, domestic substitution of DCS control systems breaks foreign monopolies, lowering equipment procurement and maintenance costs, while the 'multi-head multi-tail' flexible production mode allows rapid switching between different product specifications on the same line, adapting to small-batch, multi-variety market trends.
As the leading unit, Tongkun Group has been selected as one of the first national 'Zero-Waste Enterprise' typical cases and recognized as a 'National Service-Oriented Manufacturing Demonstration Enterprise' and 'National Excellent Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Factory'. This sends a signal to the entire industry: green and intelligence are no longer cost burdens but core competitiveness sources.
International Science and Technology Cooperation Award: From Fiber Discipline to Global Influence
The International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China was awarded to Professor Elsa Reichmanis, a distinguished chair professor at Lehigh University in the United States. She has long collaborated with the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials at Donghua University, promoting Sino-US scientific exchange. The jointly cultivated talents have been selected for national talent programs, and the two sides have published 18 high-level papers and one monograph. She has served as the academic committee chair for the 9th to 12th International Conferences on Advanced Fiber and Polymer Materials, turning the conference into the world's largest fiber-themed academic event.
The significance of this award lies in the fact that China's chemical fiber independent innovation is deeply embedded in the global science and technology cooperation network. The participation of international scholars brings cutting-edge technical perspectives and enhances the international discourse power of China's fiber materials discipline.
Deep Impact on Industry Structure
From 2012 to 2020, the textile field saw 28 achievements win the National Science and Technology Award, covering special fibers, intelligent equipment, green printing and dyeing, and industrial textiles. However, the gold content of this First Prize lies in its 'full-chain' nature—it solves not just one technical pain point but builds a complete system from raw materials, processes, equipment, to services.
For downstream buyers, this means more stable, green, and customizable polyester fiber supply. For upstream chemical fiber enterprises, this technical system is a replicable 'China plan' that can be exported to Belt and Road countries, further consolidating China's dominant position in the global chemical fiber supply chain.