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On October 25, reporters learned from the Press Office of Sinopec that a new type of catalyst developed independently by the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology, which is part of Sinopec, has recently been put into use – the low-silver-content, high-selectivity YS-8840 silver catalyst. This is the first domestic application of a silver catalyst with low silver content and high selectivity, marking the entry of China’s YS series of silver catalysts into a new arena of international competition and providing technical support for the development of the domestic catalyst industry. Silver catalysts are precious metal catalysts with silver as their active component, and they are the only catalysts used industrially for the oxidation of ethylene to produce ethylene oxide. Ethylene oxide is an important organic chemical product, widely used in industries such as pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and electronics. The YS-8840 silver catalyst developed and put into use this time features low cost, high selectivity, and high initial activity, making it suitable for the current mainstream ethylene oxide plants in the market. Its successful development filled the technical gap in low-silver-content, highly selective silver catalysts in our country, significantly enhancing the competitiveness of domestic YS series silver catalysts. Li Jinbing, deputy director of the Yanshan Branch of the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology and the academic leader in the field of silver catalysts, explained that catalysts with low silver content will be one of the mainstream options in future application markets. The silver content in the YS-8840 silver catalyst has been reduced by about one-third, yet its reaction performance remains unchanged. At the same time, the production of this catalyst can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 40% and cut production energy consumption by more than one-third. Sinopec’s silver catalyst products are suitable for over 95% of the ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plants worldwide. In the 1980s, the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Technology, which is part of Sinopec, achieved domestic production of silver catalysts for ethylene oxide for the first time. In recent years, Sinopec has successively introduced to the market more than a dozen grades of silver catalyst products belonging to four categories: high activity, medium selectivity, high efficiency, and very high selectivity. These catalysts are suitable for over 95% of the ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) plants worldwide, helping to save nearly one billion US dollars in foreign exchange costs.