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The world’s first upgraded process for producing ethylene glycol from light hydrocarbons was successfully commissioned. Recently, the ethylene glycol hydrogenation and refining technology developed by a research team from Changzhou University was successfully applied in the world’s first large-scale facility for producing polyester-grade ethylene glycol from light hydrocarbons in Xuwei New Area, Lianyungang. All key performance indicators exceeded the design standards, meeting the stringent quality requirements for high-end polyester raw materials. This achievement marks China’s technical level in the field of ethylene glycol refining as being among the best in the world, and it also provides core technical support for the high-end transformation of China’s petrochemical industry. The successful commissioning of the world’s first upgraded facility for producing polyester-grade ethylene glycol from light hydrocarbons represents an important achievement by the research team from Changzhou University in serving major strategic goals and the needs of key industries in Jiangsu Province. It is also another milestone for the team in the field of research and industrial application of ethylene glycol. At the beginning of this century, China’s coal-based ethylene glycol production process began to be scaled up, but the industry faced a widespread problem: trace amounts of unsaturated impurities in the ethylene glycol product resulted in low ultraviolet light transmittance. As a result, the product could not meet the requirements of high-end polyester production, becoming a quality bottleneck that hindered the development of this industry. Faced with this challenge in this industry, Researcher Chen Qun from Changzhou University led his research team to take on the task head-on, innovatively reengineering the catalyst system to overcome the key problem of \"molecular recognition\". The specific adsorption and directed hydrogenation catalysis technology developed by the team enables the precise capture and removal of aldehyde impurities at the ppm level, while effectively preventing side reactions such as the dehydroxylation of ethylene glycol. This approach completely solves the long-standing problem of poor quality in coal-based ethylene glycol products, helping to make China the only country in the world to achieve large-scale adoption of this coal-based ethylene glycol production process. In response to the requirements posed by the production of ethylene glycol from light hydrocarbons regarding long operation cycles, full load operation, and intrinsically safe design for hydrogenation refining technologies, the team tackled these challenges once again. The successful application at Lianyungang Petrochemical has enabled breakthroughs in three core technologies at once. At the catalyst level, the team optimized organic-inorganic hybrid catalytic materials, achieving comprehensive improvements in catalyst activity, stability, and cycle life, thereby overcoming the industry’s problem of frequent shutdowns for catalyst replacement in large-scale petrochemical plants. At the scale-up level, through collaboration between universities and enterprises, they overcame the engineering challenge of uneven flow distribution in trickle-bed reactors with high length-to-diameter ratios; by adopting a hydrogen-free circulation process and a multi-stage cooling structure, they ensured efficient interaction among gas, liquid, and solid phases, thus guaranteeing efficient production and intrinsic safety. At the process level, for the first time in the world, a complete closed-loop process for producing polyester-grade ethylene glycol from light hydrocarbons was developed, demonstrating the versatility and superiority of this technology across various raw material sources throughout the entire production chain, including those derived from coal, transesterification, MTO concentrated water purification, and light hydrocarbon routes. For decades, the research team at Changzhou University has been deeply involved in the fields of catalysis science and reaction engineering, adhering to the principle of \"writing papers in the workshop\" and promoting close integration among industry, academia, and research. The team has continued to make achievements in the field of fundamental theories on microreaction mechanisms, developing models that describe the relationship between structure, activity, and selectivity, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for the rational design of catalysts. It has filed dozens of patents at both the Chinese and international levels across the entire spectrum of catalyst preparation, reactor design, and processing methods, thus establishing a barrier based on its own intellectual property rights. To date, this technology has been applied in 17 large-scale industrial facilities across the country, including leading enterprises in industries such as Sinopec, Huayang (Yangmei), Shaanxi Coal Yulin, Xinjiang Tianye, and Guangxi Huayi. It generates over 10 million tons of high-quality ethylene glycol each year, demonstrating its technical advantages and influence in the field of hydrogenation refining for polyester-grade ethylene glycol. Furthermore, the team has extended this technology to the field of environmental protection, transforming the high COD-concentrated wastewater from MTO units from waste into a valuable resource by using it to produce mixed alcohols for increased olefin production, thereby achieving simultaneous reductions in pollution and carbon emissions as well as economic benefits. In the future, Changzhou University will continue to rely on an innovation model that integrates industry, academia, and research closely, and keep working on the development of key core technologies. By producing more original and pioneering technological achievements, it will contribute even more to helping China’s petrochemical industry advance to a new stage of high quality, high efficiency, and sustainable development.