A technological achievement covering the entire polyester fiber industry chain has just won the highest honor in China's science and technology field. According to information from the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the project 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing of Polyester Fiber Industry Chain', led by Tongkun Group as the primary unit and jointly developed with ten institutions including Donghua University, won the first prize of the 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award. This is not only a systematic technological summit in the field of general fibers for the chemical fiber industry, but also signifies that China's textile industry has completed a key leap from 'scale-driven' to 'technology-driven'.
Technological Breakthrough: From 'Industrial Staple' to Autonomous System
Polyester fiber accounts for over 70% of China's chemical fiber output and is the most basic 'industrial staple' in the textile industry chain. In the past, core processes and equipment in this field were heavily dependent on imports, especially in green and low-carbon as well as intelligent manufacturing, where domestic enterprises lacked a complete autonomous technology system. This award-winning project targeted this shortcoming and, after over a decade of collaborative research, built a full-chain technology solution covering three dimensions: green manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing.
In green manufacturing, the project team pioneered a PTA-PET direct coupling low-carbon production model, replacing traditional heavy metal catalysts with environmentally friendly titanium-based catalysts, and developed crude oil-based chemical fiber oil agents and green oiling technology. This means that from source to end, the carbon emissions throughout the lifecycle of polyester fiber production now have a quantifiable control path. In intelligent manufacturing, the project achieved large-scale domestic substitution of DCS control systems and established an integrated process and quality control system, providing a replicable upgrade template for the industry. Service-oriented manufacturing, through a 'multi-head and multi-tail' series-parallel composite polymerization technology platform, made differentiated product customization and multi-regional collaborative manufacturing possible, directly responding to the downstream market's urgent demand for flexible supply chains.
Industrial Implementation: Efficiency Revolution Behind 200 Billion Yuan in Sales
The leading technical indicators ultimately must translate into industrial benefits. Public data shows that the project's related achievements have been promoted and implemented in over ten enterprises in industrial belts such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, cumulatively generating over 200 billion yuan in new sales, over 10 billion yuan in profits and taxes, and 1.8 billion USD in export earnings. More notably, the project has led to a significant reduction in industry energy consumption and defect rates. This means that for polyester fiber buyers, production costs for the same quality are being compressed, and supply stability is improving.
As the project leader, Tongkun Group was selected as one of the first batch of national 'Zero-Waste Enterprise' typical cases and was recognized as a 'National Service-oriented Manufacturing Demonstration Enterprise' and 'National Excellent Level Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Factory'. This sends a clear signal: at both the policy and industry levels, green and intelligent transformation is shifting from a 'bonus item' to an 'entry threshold'. For small and medium-sized chemical fiber enterprises, failing to keep up with this wave of technological iteration may lead to a passive position in future order acquisition and supply chain cooperation.
International Collaboration: An Academic Bridge from 'Bringing In' to 'Going Global'
Alongside the Science and Technology Progress Award, the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China was also announced. The recipient, Professor Elsa Reichmanis, is a member of three US national academies and has long maintained deep cooperation with Donghua University's State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials. She has not only participated in joint training of national-level talents but also promoted the International Conference on Advanced Fibers and Polymer Materials to become the world's largest academic event in the fiber field.
The significance of this award extends beyond the academic level. It indicates that China's textile industry's technological innovation system is shifting from closed R&D to open collaboration. The participation of top international scholars means that China's voice in basic fiber material research is growing, which is a long-term positive for domestic companies in accessing cutting-edge technical information and participating in international standard setting.