【HaiChuan. Pioneers in the Chemical Industry】25 Chen Junwu: Created China’s own oil refining equipment

In the 1950s, with the discovery of the Daqing oil field, it was no longer a luxury to develop one’s own crude oil refining industry. In 1961, our country decided to mobilize key personnel from fields such as research, design, and manufacturing to work independently on advancing oil refining technology, in order to rapidly change the backward state of our country’s oil refining industry. At the age of 34, Chen Junwu was tasked with serving as the designer for China’s first fluidized catalytic cracking unit. Fluidized catalytic cracking is a key process technology in oil refining. At that time, there were only a few dozen such devices in the world, and the technology was strictly controlled. Our country’s designers have never seen the actual device. Chen Junwu and his colleagues working on this project worked overtime until late at night almost every day, conducting technical comparisons and evaluating various solutions day and night. After the preliminary design of the project was completed, Chen Junwu took advantage of his trip to Cuba for on-site inspections to gather the most advanced technical information from abroad, and promptly revised the relevant designs of the project. Over a period of just over half a year, he, along with several young and middle-aged technical staff members from the inspection team, used every possible clue and various channels to search for drawings, reports, and other documents that were in the hands of different people at the refinery. They took 400 rolls of film, collected tens of thousands of pages of materials, and filled more than 20 notebooks with extensive notes. After returning to the country, Chen Junwu organized everyone to design the construction drawings. Foreign materials can only serve as a reference; most of the equipment must be developed in our own country. A catalytic unit consists of dozens of pieces of equipment, hundreds of instruments, thousands of valves of various sizes, and nearly 20,000 meters of process pipelines. Chen Junwu and his colleagues persevered in tackling the challenges. In May 1965, China’s first fluidized catalytic cracking unit with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year, designed and installed domestically, was finally completed and put into operation at Fushun Petroleum Plant No. 2. At that time, the five new oil refining technologies acquired by our country were likened to “five golden flowers,” with this set of facilities representing the first “golden flower” to emerge in our country’s oil refining industry technology. In 1978, Chen Junwu attended the National Science Conference, and received an award from it for his outstanding contributions to refining technology. Since then, Chen Junwu has continued to innovate. In 1982, the former Ministry of Petroleum established a task force for new refining technologies; Chen Junwu served as the head of this task force focused on catalytic cracking technology. One of its tasks was to develop and put into industrial use the technology related to the \"Sixth Five-Year Plan\" project on catalytic cracking of atmospheric residue from Daqing. Another task was to build a brand-new catalytic cracking unit using the technologies developed independently. Through relentless efforts, the research team has achieved a large number of results in areas such as reaction kinetics, regeneration kinetics, high-efficiency equipment, and heat extraction from both inside and outside. Today, our country has become the world’s second-largest producer of catalytic cracking, with process technologies that are at the international advanced level, and an annual processing capacity of nearly 150 million tons. In the composition of commercial gasoline, catalytic cracking gasoline accounts for about 70%, while diesel makes up around 30%; moreover, more than 30% of the propylene also comes from the catalytic cracking process.

In the 1950s, with the discovery of the Daqing oil field, it was no longer a luxury to develop one’s own crude oil refining industry. In 1961, our country decided to mobilize key personnel from fields such as research, design, and manufacturing to work independently on advancing oil refining technology, in order to rapidly change the backward state of our country’s oil refining industry. At the age of 34, Chen Junwu was tasked with serving as the designer for China’s first fluidized catalytic cracking unit. Fluidized catalytic cracking is a key process technology in oil refining. At that time, there were only a few dozen such devices in the world, and the technology was strictly controlled. Our country’s designers have never seen the actual device. Chen Junwu and his colleagues working on this project worked overtime until late at night almost every day, conducting technical comparisons and evaluating various solutions day and night. After the preliminary design of the project was completed, Chen Junwu took advantage of his trip to Cuba for on-site inspections to gather the most advanced technical information from abroad, and promptly revised the relevant designs of the project. Over a period of just over half a year, he, along with several young and middle-aged technical staff members from the inspection team, used every possible clue and various channels to search for drawings, reports, and other documents that were in the hands of different people at the refinery. They took 400 rolls of film, collected tens of thousands of pages of materials, and filled more than 20 notebooks with extensive notes. After returning to the country, Chen Junwu organized everyone to design the construction drawings. Foreign materials can only serve as a reference; most of the equipment must be developed in our own country. A catalytic unit consists of dozens of pieces of equipment, hundreds of instruments, thousands of valves of various sizes, and nearly 20,000 meters of process pipelines. Chen Junwu and his colleagues persevered in tackling the challenges. In May 1965, China’s first fluidized catalytic cracking unit with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year, designed and installed domestically, was finally completed and put into operation at Fushun Petroleum Plant No. 2. At that time, the five new oil refining technologies acquired by our country were likened to “five golden flowers,” with this set of facilities representing the first “golden flower” to emerge in our country’s oil refining industry technology. In 1978, Chen Junwu attended the National Science Conference, and received an award from it for his outstanding contributions to refining technology. Since then, Chen Junwu has continued to innovate. In 1982, the former Ministry of Petroleum established a task force for new refining technologies; Chen Junwu served as the head of this task force focused on catalytic cracking technology. One of its tasks was to develop and put into industrial use the technology related to the \"Sixth Five-Year Plan\" project on catalytic cracking of atmospheric residue from Daqing. Another task was to build a brand-new catalytic cracking unit using the technologies developed independently. Through relentless efforts, the research team has achieved a large number of results in areas such as reaction kinetics, regeneration kinetics, high-efficiency equipment, and heat extraction from both inside and outside. Today, our country has become the world’s second-largest producer of catalytic cracking, with process technologies that are at the international advanced level, and an annual processing capacity of nearly 150 million tons. In the composition of commercial gasoline, catalytic cracking gasoline accounts for about 70%, while diesel makes up around 30%; moreover, more than 30% of the propylene also comes from the catalytic cracking process.

Solving the global challenge of coal-based olefins In 1990, 62-year-old Chen Junwu retired from Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Company. That year, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a title that was later changed to academician. It was also starting from the 1990s that, with economic development, China’s oil consumption surged, and its dependence on imported oil continued to increase. At this time, Chen Junwu began to pay attention to the issue of oil substitutes. He collaborated with other academicians and experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on research in the field of medium- to long-term oil supplementation and substitution in China, and worked together with colleagues from the China Petroleum Research Institute and the Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute on research into the production of low-carbon olefins from coal or natural gas in the petrochemical industry. Converting coal into oil is a plan that excites many people. As a consultant for international consulting firms and a renowned technical expert, Chen Junwu has participated in the evaluation of results and technical reviews for various coal-to-oil projects carried out by companies such as Shenhua Group and Ningxia Coal Group, thereby contributing to the development of coal-to-oil technologies in China that possess independent intellectual property rights. Ethylene and propylene in olefins are basic raw materials for the organic chemical industry, and their production technology relies heavily on petroleum resources. Coal-to-olefins technology is an important strategic approach that links coal chemical industry with the petroleum chemical industry, and it plays a key role in implementing oil substitution strategies and ensuring energy security. However, this is a global challenge. Among them, methanol-to-olefins is a key core technology for coal-to-olefins production, and it represents a challenging task on a global scale. In 1997, experts from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences came to Luoyang to share the results of pilot-scale technology development for methanol-to-olefins, with the aim of utilizing experience in fluidized bed technology to develop DMTO technology. Chen Junwu keenly realized that as crude oil prices continued to rise, coal-based methanol-to-olefins would have broad market prospects, which prompted the company to establish a cooperation mechanism with the other party. Under his guidance, the project carried out two rounds of 100-fold scale-up in technological development, from the laboratory stage to industrial pilot plants and full-scale industrial demonstration units. In August 2010, the world’s first and largest DMTO industrial demonstration plant was built in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, thereby establishing core technologies with independent intellectual property rights in the field of coal-to-olefins. At the same time, Academician Chen Junwu also supervised the development of new technologies such as DMTO-II technology, olefin separation technology with independent intellectual property rights, and the integration of DMTO and olefin separation. In just 5 years, the DMTO technology developed by Chen Junwu and his team has been adopted by nearly 20 companies in China, yielding positive results. It not only succeeded in establishing a non-oil-based route for olefin production but also contributed to the rapid development of a new industry for producing olefins from methanol in China. In January 2015, the DMTO technology was awarded the **First Prize for Technical Invention.

Solving the global challenge of coal-based olefins In 1990, 62-year-old Chen Junwu retired from Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Company. That year, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a title that was later changed to academician. It was also starting from the 1990s that, with economic development, China’s oil consumption surged, and its dependence on imported oil continued to increase. At this time, Chen Junwu began to pay attention to the issue of oil substitutes. He collaborated with other academicians and experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on research in the field of medium- to long-term oil supplementation and substitution in China, and worked together with colleagues from the China Petroleum Research Institute and the Shanghai Petrochemical Research Institute on research into the production of low-carbon olefins from coal or natural gas in the petrochemical industry. Converting coal into oil is a plan that excites many people. As a consultant for international consulting firms and a renowned technical expert, Chen Junwu has participated in the evaluation of results and technical reviews for various coal-to-oil projects carried out by companies such as Shenhua Group and Ningxia Coal Group, thereby contributing to the development of coal-to-oil technologies in China that possess independent intellectual property rights. Ethylene and propylene in olefins are basic raw materials for the organic chemical industry, and their production technology relies heavily on petroleum resources. Coal-to-olefins technology is an important strategic approach that links coal chemical industry with the petroleum chemical industry, and it plays a key role in implementing oil substitution strategies and ensuring energy security. However, this is a global challenge. Among them, methanol-to-olefins is a key core technology for coal-to-olefins production, and it represents a challenging task on a global scale. In 1997, experts from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences came to Luoyang to share the results of pilot-scale technology development for methanol-to-olefins, with the aim of utilizing experience in fluidized bed technology to develop DMTO technology. Chen Junwu keenly realized that as crude oil prices continued to rise, coal-based methanol-to-olefins would have broad market prospects, which prompted the company to establish a cooperation mechanism with the other party. Under his guidance, the project carried out two rounds of 100-fold scale-up in technological development, from the laboratory stage to industrial pilot plants and full-scale industrial demonstration units. In August 2010, the world’s first and largest DMTO industrial demonstration plant was built in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, thereby establishing core technologies with independent intellectual property rights in the field of coal-to-olefins. At the same time, Academician Chen Junwu also supervised the development of new technologies such as DMTO-II technology, olefin separation technology with independent intellectual property rights, and the integration of DMTO and olefin separation. In just 5 years, the DMTO technology developed by Chen Junwu and his team has been adopted by nearly 20 companies in China, yielding positive results. It not only succeeded in establishing a non-oil-based route for olefin production but also contributed to the rapid development of a new industry for producing olefins from methanol in China. In January 2015, the DMTO technology was awarded the **First Prize for Technical Invention.

The older generation didn’t have software, so they relied on looking at sand models to gradually master the core technologies and key components. It’s so easy to obtain resources these days.

The environment is changing; the spirit must be passed on

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