A full-chain technological breakthrough covering everything from raw materials to finished polyester fiber products has just won China's highest scientific honor. On July 8, the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards were announced in Beijing. The project 'Key Technologies for Green and Intelligent Manufacturing of the Polyester Fiber Industry Chain,' led by Tongkun Group as the primary completing unit and jointly developed with ten institutions including Donghua University and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This marks the first time in eight years that the textile and chemical fiber industry has reached this pinnacle since the 2017 carbon fiber award, and it is the first systematic breakthrough in general fiber full-chain technology.
Background
Polyester fiber is the 'industrial staple' of the textile industry. China's chemical fiber output accounts for 70% of the global total, with polyester fiber ranking first among all types. The award-winning project was led by Donghua University researcher Wang Huaping as the first completer, with deep involvement from a team including Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Zhu Meifang, after more than a decade of collaborative industry-academia-research efforts. The project addressed major strategic needs for industrial chain security and international competition, achieving core technological breakthroughs in three dimensions: green manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, and service-oriented manufacturing:
- Green manufacturing: Pioneered a PTA-PET direct-coupled low-carbon production model, developed an environmentally friendly titanium-based catalyst and engineering application technology, and established full lifecycle green standards.
- Intelligent manufacturing: Completed full-process automation equipment upgrades, achieved large-scale domestic substitution of DCS control systems, and established an integrated control system for process and quality.
- Service-oriented manufacturing: Pioneered a 'multi-head, multi-tail' series-parallel composite polymerization technology platform, enabling differentiated product customization and multi-region collaborative agile manufacturing.
To date, the project has formed a complete independent intellectual property system including 76 authorized invention patents, 10 software copyrights, and 14 national and industry standards. An expert panel of academicians has identified the overall technology as reaching internationally leading levels.
Industry Impact
The ripple effects of this technological breakthrough on the upstream and downstream of the polyester fiber industry chain are already apparent. The project's results have been implemented in industrial bases in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang, as well as at over ten industry enterprises, 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. For buyers, this means a significant improvement in product quality stability and customization capabilities, while green production standards will force upstream raw material suppliers to accelerate environmental process upgrades.
From an industry structure perspective, China's polyester fiber sector has long faced the challenge of being large but not strong, with high-end differentiated products relying on imports, a lack of green production standards, and uneven intelligent manufacturing levels. The core value of this award-winning project lies in its construction of a replicable and scalable 'China Solution' for industrial upgrading, providing a clear technological transformation path for small and medium-sized chemical fiber enterprises. Tongkun Group, leveraging the project's demonstration effect, has been selected as one of the first national 'Zero-Waste Enterprise' typical cases and has been recognized as a 'National Service-Oriented Manufacturing Demonstration Enterprise' and a 'National Excellent Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Factory,' indicating that the technological advantages of leading enterprises will further translate into market barriers.
Meanwhile, at this awards ceremony, Professor Elsa Reichmanis, Chair of the International Advisory Committee of Donghua University's State Key Laboratory for Advanced Fiber Materials, received the中华人民共和国 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. This American academician of three national academies has long been committed to promoting Sino-US scientific exchanges, co-training a group of national-level talents with Donghua University, and co-publishing 18 high-level papers. This award indicates that China's textile industry is accelerating its alignment with international frontiers in basic research and international cooperation.