Over 200 billion yuan in new sales, more than 10 billion yuan in profit and tax, and $1.8 billion in export earnings—these are the results delivered by the 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing in the Polyester Fiber Chain' project. At the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards, this project, led by Tongkun Group with ten institutions including Donghua University after over a decade of collaboration, won the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. It marks the first time a full-chain polyester fiber technology has reached the top national honor.
Industry Impact
Polyester fiber is the 'industrial staple' of textiles, accounting for the largest share of China's chemical fiber output, which itself represents over 70% of global production. Any leap in polyester fiber technology directly reshapes cost structures, quality standards, and competitive dynamics across the global chemical fiber industry. This award-winning project is not a single-point breakthrough but covers the entire chain from PTA, PET, spinning, texturing to end products.
Specifically, the project achieved industry-level advances in three dimensions: First, green manufacturing—it pioneered a direct PTA-PET low-carbon model, replaced traditional antimony catalysts with environmentally friendly titanium-based ones, and established a full-lifecycle green standard, directly addressing the carbon reduction pressure on the chemical fiber industry under the 'dual carbon' goals. Second, intelligent manufacturing—it completed the domestic replacement of DCS control systems, creating a replicable 'China solution', meaning smaller fiber companies can now access smart production systems at lower costs. Third, service-oriented manufacturing—through a 'multi-head, multi-tail' polymerization platform, it enables agile customization of differentiated products, breaking the traditional 'high volume, few varieties' production inertia and making small-batch, multi-variety orders feasible.
For downstream buyers, the rollout of this technology brings two direct changes: improved product quality stability, meaning lower defect rates in fabrics and garments, and enhanced customization capabilities, allowing brands to request differentiated fibers more flexibly without worrying about upstream capacity constraints.
From the perspective of industrial clusters, over ten companies in major production areas like Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang have adopted the project's results. Tongkun Group was selected as one of the first national 'Zero-Waste Enterprises' and a 'National Excellent Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Factory', signaling that policy resources are tilting toward companies with full-chain independent technology capabilities.
University-Industry Collaboration and International Cooperation
Donghua University secured two major national honors this time. Besides the First Prize project, Professor Elsa Reichmanis from Lehigh University received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. Reichmanis has long promoted US-China scientific exchanges and since 2013 has collaborated with Donghua's State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials, jointly training talents, publishing papers, and hosting international conferences. Her award not only recognizes her academic contributions but also reflects a shift in China's textile industry from 'following' to 'running alongside' in basic research: we once imported foreign technologies, but now we can attract top international scholars to participate in domestic research.
Notably, between 2012 and 2020, the textile sector saw 28 projects win National Science and Technology Awards, covering specialty fibers, smart equipment, green dyeing, and industrial textiles. However, previous First Prizes were concentrated in areas like carbon fiber or dyeing. This polyester fiber full-chain project fills a gap in general fiber technology and signals that China's chemical fiber industry has established a complete independent innovation system in basic materials.