Recently, a symposium on the innovative development of pilot testing in manufacturing was held in Panjin, where the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the first batch of national-level manufacturing pilot platform designations.
The fine chemical pilot platform operated by Liaoning Fine Chemical Industry Technology Development Co., Ltd. was successfully selected, adding another national-level "name card" for technological innovation within Liaoning's petrochemical and fine chemical industries.
Pilot testing serves as the indispensable bridge for transforming scientific and technological achievements from the laboratory to industrial production, yet it is often avoided by research institutions and enterprises due to its high investment requirements, significant risks, and long cycles, earning it the moniker "Darwinian Sea of Death."
In August 2019, Panjin City deepened its strategic cooperation with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, establishing Liaoning Fine Chemical Industry Technology Development Co., Ltd. through a "government funding + technology equity" model, with the fine chemical pilot platform founded under this company.
As the first market-oriented new-type scientific achievement transformation institution in Northeast China, the company and its platform simultaneously embarked on an exploratory journey featuring government-enterprise-research collaboration to bridge the "achievement conversion gap."
Since commencing operations, the platform has closely adhered to the strategic deployment of "treating the pilot stage as a 'pilot industry'," integrating Panjin's petrochemical and fine chemical industrial resources and focusing on five key areas—catalysts, pharmaceutical intermediates, electronic chemicals, polymer materials, and new energy materials—to solidify its hardware foundation.
Leveraging comprehensive hardware facilities and innovative mechanisms, the platform has established a full-chain innovation system described as "scientific research in the laboratory, pilot scale-up in the incubator, and industrial conversion in the development zone," successfully clearing the critical pathway from "lab-scale testing—pilot testing—industrialization."
In the realm of technological攻坚, the platform has achieved successive breakthroughs.
A joint pilot project with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on "alkylation of naphthalene to produce 2,6-dialkylnaphthalene and oxidation to naphthalenedicarboxylic acid" has developed a complete set of processes for the low-cost production of key monomers for polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), solving a critical bottleneck issue for China's PEN industry; this achievement was assessed as internationally advanced by an evaluation organized by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.
A new process for the one-step oxidative esterification of methacrolein to methyl methacrylate (MMA) using nano-gold catalysis, developed in collaboration with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua University, has completed full-process verification via a thousand-ton pilot unit, laying a solid foundation for the industrialization of an annual 100,000-ton new materials project and offering the potential to reverse China's long-term dependence on imported high-end MMA raw materials.
After more than six years of dedicated cultivation, the platform has developed five core advantages: superior public utility attributes, high professional standards, innovative systems and mechanisms, strong industrial拉动 capabilities, and a comprehensive conversion chain, resulting in significant achievement transformation outcomes.
Currently, the platform has facilitated 12 projects from companies such as Sanli Zhongke and Green Chemmaster to complete pilot maturation and achieve industrialization, driving industrial investment exceeding 3 billion yuan.
The platform is currently undertaking 16 pilot projects for entities including the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Liaoning Kingfa Technology Co., while also holding a reserve of over 10 high-quality projects, providing robust scientific and technological support for the implementation of Panjin's strategy of "supporting large-scale chemical industry + extending the fine chemical industry chain."
This entry into the "national team" coincides with a critical juncture where the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is systematically advancing the innovative development of manufacturing pilot testing; the platform will accelerate the aggregation of innovation resources, attract more lab-scale results from universities, research institutes, and enterprises for validation in Panjin, and promote the local industrialization of pilot projects.
"Following the platform's successful selection, it has not only significantly enhanced its influence nationwide in the petrochemical and fine chemical sectors but can also effectively aggregate national innovation resources, attracting more lab-scale results from universities, research institutes, and companies to Panjin for validation, thereby accelerating the local industrialization of pilot projects," said Zhang Jianguo, General Manager of Liaoning Fine Chemical Industry Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Looking ahead, the platform's development blueprint is highly aligned with the national plan for pilot testing innovation.
Liaoning Fine Chemical Industry Technology Development Co., Ltd. will leverage the national platform as an opportunity to focus on strategic emerging fields such as new energy materials and high-end electronic chemicals, advance the construction of the platform's second-phase project and its digital-intelligent transformation, improve the pilot big data model library, utilize digital twin technology to optimize production simulation, and build a dual-track verification system of "physical pilot testing + digital simulation" to enhance its capacity for undertaking cutting-edge technologies.
Concurrently, the platform will continue to explore new models for the synergistic development of pilot services and the industrial chain, strengthen the pilot conversion of green and low-carbon technologies, assist in the green transformation of the petrochemical industry, and strive to build a technological source in the field of fine chemical pilot testing.
The development journey of the fine chemical pilot platform, from a regional exploration to a national demonstration, serves as a vivid缩影 of Liaoning's efforts to deeply integrate technological innovation with industrial innovation.
Zhang Jianguo stated that the platform will persistently explore new models for the synergistic development of pilot services and the industrial chain, export replicable "Panjin experience," build a technological source in the fine chemical pilot testing field, develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions, and inject strong momentum into the national petrochemical and fine chemical industries.
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