Guided by **strategic and corporate needs — An interview with Yue Guangxi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and researcher at the Department of Thermal Energy Engineering at Tsinghua University

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Source: China Chemical Industry News “**Strategic orientation**” is a key term that Yue Guangxi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher in the Department of Thermal Energy Engineering at Tsinghua University, often mentions when discussing technological innovation; it is also the principle behind his remarkable achievements. 　　Faced with a specific approach to technical research, Academician Yue Guangxi believes that a \"problem-oriented\" approach is the fundamental method. He said, “Any applied research you do at school ultimately aims to solve product problems and develop new products.” ”　　Academician Yue Guangxi said, “The core issue with all fossil fuels in the world is how to use them cleanly.” China’s energy foundation is coal, and for Chinese scientists and engineers, the challenge lies in finding a way to make use of coal on a large scale while avoiding severe pollution. This is **’s strategy. There is no answer to this question abroad; one must find it on their own. ”This is the fundamental driving force behind Yue Guangxi’s team’s unwavering commitment to clean coal technology over the past 40 years. 　　Since the 1980s, to address the urgent need in China to make efficient use of low-quality coal and coal gangue generated during coal washing, Yue Guangxi’s team has been working on the development of circulating fluidized bed combustion technology, undertaking relevant scientific and technological research projects from the \"Eighth Five-Year Plan\" period to the \"13th Five-Year Plan\" period, as well as \"863\" support projects. The research results interpret the internal fluidization pattern of circulating fluidized bed combustion boilers from the perspective of gas-solid two-phase flow, completely updating the theory of circulating fluidized bed combustion. They provide a method for the steady-state design of such boilers, laying the foundation for the development of circulating fluidized bed combustion technology in China. 　　At the same time, through comprehensive cooperation ranging from small boiler manufacturers to the three major boiler factories in Shanghai, Dongfang, and Harbin, and by progressing from small industrial circulating fluidized bed boilers to power generation boilers, a series of advanced domestic circulating fluidized bed boiler products have been developed. By 2005, its product technology had surpassed that of foreign countries; it achieved supercritical operation in circulating fluidized bed boilers, and completed the world’s largest and most efficient 600MW supercritical circulating fluidized bed combustion power generation demonstration project. This demonstration project won the **First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 2017. 　　Reaching world leadership in circulating fluidized bed combustion technology has not stopped Yue Guangxi’s team. To address the common problems of high fan power consumption and low availability in circulating fluidized bed combustion boilers around the world, this team proposed an energy-saving circulating fluidized bed technology based on the reconstruction of flow patterns in 2007. This technology reduces the electrical consumption of fans by 30% and increases the availability rate of boilers to over 8,000 hours per year. The Yue Guangxi team collaborated with Shanxi Taiyuan Boiler Group to develop new products, resulting in an annual output value that increased from 100 million yuan to 700–800 million yuan. Since 2015, **the world’s strictest standards have been set for coal-fired pollution emissions. In response to this challenge, Yue Guangxi’s team once again proposed, from a theoretical standpoint, adjusting the internal fluidization state of the circulating fluidized bed, thereby developing a circulating fluidized bed technology that enables ultra-low emissions to be achieved directly during the combustion process. This technology shocked the international combustion community and was regarded as a \"paradigm shift\". As a result, the annual output value of Taiyuan Boiler Group exceeded 1 billion yuan. 　　The R&D experience of the Yue Guangxi team in gasification technology further illustrates the importance of a \"strategy-oriented\" and \"problem-oriented\" approach. 　　Recalling the team’s history in developing gasification technology, Yue Guangxi said, “In 1993, Professor Zhang Xuyi assigned me the task of working on circulating fluidized bed technology, and he introduced the concept of medium-temperature gasification using such beds; the goal was mainly to provide gas and heating services for small and medium-sized towns in China.” In 2000, I had the feeling that as industrialization progressed, the demand for chemicals (for gasification technology) would increase significantly. Since international oil and gas prices as well as the scarcity of petroleum and natural gas resources in China hinder the development of the petrochemical industry there, the development of coal-based chemicals will become a strategic necessity. The cornerstone of the coal chemical industry is large-scale high-pressure gasification. After determining the basic technical direction, I assigned Dr. Zhang Jiansheng, who had just graduated and remained at the university, to shift from the field of circulating fluidized bed research to the field of large-scale coal gasification. This is a strategic decision and cross-disciplinary research and development. ”　　Yue Guangxi said, “Starting in 2000, we used our own funds to initiate fundamental research on large-scale coal gasification using high-pressure pure oxygen fluidized beds. We adopted GE-TEXACO’s water-coal slurry gasification technology as the starting point for our research efforts, introduced the concept of using secondary air to control the flame that is commonly used in the combustion industry, and proposed the idea of staged oxygen supply for water-coal slurry gasification, thereby developing the first generation of Tsinghua coal gasification technology.” Furthermore, the original high-temperature fire-resistant insulating bricks were replaced with membrane-type water wall coatings equipped with high thermal conductivity refractory material layers, resulting in the second-generation Tsinghua gasification technology for water-coal slurry membrane walls. On this basis, the team formed a industry-academia-research partnership with Yangmei Group, overcoming the challenges related to heat recovery from high-temperature gas sludge mixed streams and ash accumulation in GE-TEXACO gasification processes, which had never been resolved successfully. As a result, Tsinghua University’s third-generation gasification technology was developed, named Jinhua Furnace Gasification Technology. ”　　He explained that on April 1, 2016, the Jinhua furnace was put into operation at the Linyi branch of Yangmei Fengxi Fertilizer (Group) Co., Ltd., marking an innovation in the design of water-coal slurry gasification furnaces as well as a renovation of existing furnaces. The technology used was at the international leading level. By January 31, 2019, this furnace had helped manufacturing enterprises generate output worth 2.2 billion yuan. It won the only special prize for technological progress in China’s nitrogen fertilizer and methanol industry in 2017, as well as the only special prize for technological progress in China’s coal industry in 2018. 　　Yue Guangxi emphasized that innovation is a long-term process, and it is essential to clearly recognize that modern industry is a system. This system comprises many interrelated components. Innovation is the cumulative progress of every link in the system. Rather than shouting slogans about innovation every day, it is better to delve into actual production processes and make improvements step by step, accumulating progress over time.