【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】Successful development of a complete set of ethylenimine technologies with independent intellectual property rights from 1993 to 2023

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Looking at the development of chemical technology over the past decade, we admire the prosperity and strength of modern China. This is just a starting point to encourage further discussion among everyone; with your participation, things will become even more interesting. [The Ten-Year Progress of Chemical Equipment] – continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html. Prevention first, life above all. ----------------------------------------- Recently, the ethylenimine project developed by the Liaoning Binhai Laboratory (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) was put into practice at Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. Technologies with independent intellectual property rights: In response to the challenge faced by China in terms of the technology for producing ethylenimine using the MEA method, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, utilized metal nanoscale dispersion techniques as well as technologies for controlling the active structure of nanocatalysts. This enabled the development of metal nanocatalysts with high selectivity and long lifespan, solving the problem of aggregation of metal nanocrystals during the reaction process. As a result, a complete set of clean and green production technologies for ethylenimine with independent intellectual property rights was developed; 16 invention patents were applied for, of which 7 were granted. Compared with similar foreign technologies, it boasts advantages such as strong innovation, excellent performance, low investment costs, and low energy consumption; evaluation experts consider it to be at the international leading level. This achievement has broken the long-standing monopoly of multinational companies in the ethylenediamine industry, with their market share exceeding 50% of the domestic market. Ethyleneamine is an important fine chemical intermediate with wide applications. The production of ethylenediamine in our country started relatively late, with over 70% of domestic products relying on imports. Although China has built several small and medium-sized ethylenediamine production facilities, the dichloroethane method is generally used for the production of ethylenediamine. This approach results in high consumption of raw materials, high energy usage, severe corrosion, and significant pollution; as a result, large-scale production is difficult to achieve, and the quality of the product is quite inferior to that of foreign products. Project history: Starting in 2009, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed clean and green technologies for ethylenimine series products. This achievement has gone through research and development stages such as laboratory tests, pilot-scale trials, and improvements for commercial production, and it possesses the capacity for commercial production of 30,000 tons or more per year. After multiple rounds of discussions with companies in Liaoning Province such as Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., these enterprises highly approved of this technology; moreover, they already possess the raw materials needed to produce ethylenediamine as well as the facilities in the chemical industrial park. After signing a licensing agreement with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, the company went through a one-and-a-half-year construction period, and trial production began in October 2023; the products met all the specifications outlined in the contract. Full-scale production is set to start in November 2023.