“50 Years of Development of Industrial Turbines by Hangzhou Steam Turbine
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The predecessor of Hangzhou Steam Turbine, Hangzhou Steam Turbine Factory, was established in August 1958 as part of Hangzhou’s efforts to develop the power generation equipment industry in response to the \"Great Leap Forward\" movement; its initial technology was obtained from Shanghai Steam Turbine Factory. In November 1958, Hangzhou Steam Turbine Factory successfully developed Zhejiang’s first 750-kilowatt \"impulse\" steam turbine, which was used in power plants within the province. In 1962, the company successfully designed and manufactured its first multi-stage back-pressure industrial steam turbine, taking a historic step toward technological independence. Since then, it has specialized in the production of industrial steam turbines, whose products are used to support the local \"five small industries\". [Note: The “five small industries” generally refer to five types of industrial enterprises: small steel production, small coal mining, small machinery manufacturing, small cement production, and small fertilizer production.] 】 In June 1974, Hangzhou Steam Turbine was designated as the responsible entity for the introduction of industrial steam turbines under the \"43 Plan\". In December 1975, **with an investment of $20 million, Hangzhou Steam Turbine signed a contract with Siemens to acquire, on a one-time purchase basis, the design and manufacturing technologies for three series of \"reaction-type\" industrial steam turbines. These technologies are better suited for various operating conditions involving variable speed and power, such as those found in the petrochemical and metallurgical industries. However, Hangzhou Steam Turbine decided to pursue a two-pronged approach, not abandoning its \"impulsive\" technology, which is more suitable for power generation at constant speed and rate. Also in 1975, Hangzhou Steam Turbine developed China’s first set of industrial steam turbines for driving 300,000-ton ammonia synthesis plants, establishing the company’s leading role in the domestic research, development, and manufacturing of industrial steam turbines with variable speed and operating conditions. At that time, Siemens provided the complete set of technical documents and licensing, while Hangzhou Turbine had to design and manufacture the products itself; the process of \"digesting and absorbing\" this technology was extremely difficult. Hangzhou Steam Turbine used the T6002 steam turbine, designed with imported technology, as the \"evaluation product\" to assess whether the technical documents provided by Siemens were advanced and accurate. This steam turbine has a power output of 19,000 kilowatts and is primarily used to drive the cracking gas compressor in the ethylene plant. According to the plan, this turbine was to be delivered to a domestic petrochemical company in November 1979. However, after the third large-scale introduction of technical equipment began in 1978, that customer suddenly switched to importing industrial steam turbines from abroad, and this \"evaluation product\" lost its purpose; ultimately, the supply plan was canceled. Since then, Hangzhou Steam Turbine has always tried to prove its capabilities, but the customers have countered by pointing out the lack of performance, thus falling into a vicious cycle of \"being unable to achieve performance because there is no performance to start with.\" Hangzhou Steam Turbine has waited for nearly 20 years to get the chance to prove itself in the field of high-end petrochemical equipment. However, such circumstances force Hangzhou Steam Turbine, which has to rely on both approaches, to depend more on market competition and independent innovation. In September 1984, Hangzhou Steam Turbine successfully designed and manufactured the T6008 steam turbine, used to drive the CO₂ compressor in a urea production plant with an annual capacity of 520,000 tons. This \"Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Plant unit\" won the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 1987. In 1994, Hangzhou Steam Turbine entered the domestic market for boiler feed pump turbines, and since then its market share in this sector has remained above 50%. In 1998, the localization upgrade of the 480,000-ton ethylene plant at Daqing Petrochemical Complex finally provided Hangzhou Turbine with an opportunity for breakthroughs in high-end technology. Hangzhou Turbine successfully developed the T6411 turbine driven by a pyrolysis gas compressor for this project, and it was awarded the Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 2002. Subsequently, Hangzhou Steam Turbine completed a series of developments for steam turbines used in ethylene plants at petrochemical enterprises such as Yanshan, Tianjin, Yangzi, Shanghai Jinshan, and Maoming. Back then, the maximum output power of turbine technology transferred by Siemens was 60,000 kilowatts; yet as industrial installations became larger, Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. dared to go beyond the limitations of the imported technologies and developed its own turbines with a capacity of 70,000 kilowatts.
Under the competition from Hangzhou Steam Turbine, Siemens, which had repeatedly failed in bidding in the Chinese market, thought of forming a joint venture as a solution. The two companies signed long-term technical cooperation agreements on two occasions, in 1988 and 1997. In 2001, Siemens made an offer to Hangzhou Steam Turbine to transform their partnership into a joint venture, with the main condition being that Siemens would hold control of the joint venture ； The sales and manufacturing of industrial steam turbines of model 40 and above produced by Hangzhou Steam Turbine have been transferred to a joint venture; after the establishment of this joint venture, Hangzhou Steam Turbine will no longer be able to produce or sell such products ； Siemens’ turbine technology and intellectual property are contributed to the joint venture in exchange for equity. In fact, industrial steam turbines of model 40 and above covered almost 85% of the market demand for such turbines at that time. In 2004, the joint venture negotiations collapsed, and Siemens unilaterally terminated the long-term technical cooperation agreement signed with Hangzhou Steam Turbine in 1997. However, such a “failure to make payments” can no longer threaten Hangzhou Steam Turbine. In 2004, Hangzhou Steam Turbine launched a research and development project for \"three million-class products,\" and in 2007 it completed the development of the first ultra-supercritical million-class boiler feed pump steam turbine ； In April 2007, a supply contract was signed for the first domestically produced steam turbine designed for PTA production, with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons; this marked the first time that domestically manufactured units were supplied for PTA projects ； In 2008, the drive steam turbine for the first ethylene plant with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons was completed, and it came online at Tianjin Petrochemical the following year ； In 2010, the turbine used to drive the exhaust fan of the first 1 million kilowatt ultra-supercritical boiler was completed ； In October 2011, a contract was awarded for four turbine sets for Reactors 3 and 4 at the Fujian Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant ； In 2015, the first super-large turbo turbine for compressors in air separation units of 100,000-class capacity was developed successfully. These products signify that Hangzhou Steam Turbine has reached world-class standards. In 2017, Hangzhou Steam Turbine received an order for 43 steam turbines for Dalian Hengli Petrochemical’s 2 million tons per year integrated refining and chemical processing project. In July 2018, Hangzhou Steam Turbine received an order from Hengli Petrochemical for a 1.5 million tons per year ethylene plant, requiring turbines for its operation. The turbine used in the pyrolysis gas unit had a maximum power output of 100,000 kilowatts, making it the most powerful industrial drive turbine in the world; it came online in January 2020. However, Hengli Petrochemical did not place the order for compressors with SHENGU, but instead purchased foreign products.