【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】The pilot-scale plant for the bio-based furan dicarboxylic acid technology developed by Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics was successfully commissioned between 2033 and 2026

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Let’s give praise and support to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** Recently, the pilot-scale production facility for bio-based furan dicarboxylic acid, developed by the Organic Catalysis Research Group (DNL0601 Group) under the Bioenergy Research Department at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, was successfully commissioned and has been operating stably at Hubei Xingfa Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xingfa Group”). This device enables the entire process chain of this technology, allowing for the production of high-quality products such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), 2,5-furandiformaldehyde (DFF), and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Against the backdrop of the steady progress toward China’s \"dual carbon\" goals and the accelerating transformation of the global energy industry landscape, the development of bio-based products has become an important pathway for the chemical industry to achieve a green and low-carbon transition. In the field of bio-based new materials, FDCA is an organic dibasic acid containing a furan ring structure; it is structurally similar to terephthalic acid and is considered one of the most promising bio-based alternative monomers. Polyethylene furan dicarboxylate (PEF) prepared using FDCA as the monomer is derived from renewable resources, and it exhibits superior heat resistance, mechanical properties, and gas barrier properties compared to conventional polyethylene terephthalate (PET), offering broad prospects for industrial application. Currently, the large-scale production of FDCA faces issues such as long production processes, complex manufacturing techniques, difficulties in purification, and high production costs ； Among them, the key intermediate HMF has poor stability and is difficult to separate and purify. Developing a method for the rapid conversion of HMF into stable intermediates can provide a new technical approach for the large-scale production of FDCA. Since 2006, under the leadership of Researcher Xu Jie, the DNL0601 group has begun to work on the research and development of polyester monomers such as bio-based furan dicarboxylic acid. In recent years, the teams led by Gao Jin and Shi Song have made series of advances in the industrialization of bio-based furan dicarboxylic acid. They have successively overcome the key technologies for the efficient production of HMF and its derivative transformations, and developed a complete set of processes and technologies for the green and efficient synthesis of “hexose-HM-DFF-FDCA”. They have also collaborated with Xingfa Group to advance pilot-scale production and engineering validation. After more than a year of construction and commissioning of the pilot plant, significant progress has been made in this project: the pilot plant was put into operation for testing in November 2025 ； By February 2026, the HMF production process will be established, enabling the production of HMF products with a purity of 99% ； By March 2026, the DFF production process will be fully established, with product purity reaching 99% ； The first batch of FDCA pilot-scale products was produced in April 2026, with a purity of 99.9%. To date, this device has operated continuously and stably for over 2,000 hours. The pilot operation achieved the desired objectives, enabling the determination of the key process parameters for the catalyst and its applications, thereby providing essential basic data and technical support for industrial use. This work overcame the key technical challenges related to the efficient conversion, separation, and purification of hexose-based biomasses, and developed a new green, stable, and high-purity process for the production of the bio-based monomer FDCA. It provides a new green and low-carbon technological route for the industrial development of bio-based materials. This project is supported by funds such as the **National Natural Science Foundation and Hubei Xingfa Group’s research funding.