Technology innovation leads to

world-class chemical engineering

Xinbin Ma

School of Chemical Engineering and Technology

Tianjin University

10th Global Chinese Chemical Engineers Symposium (GCCES)

Aug. 18, 2018 Ontario • Canada

Initiator: Xuanhuai Sheng

The 1st B.S. diploma in

China (issued in 1889)

Memorial to the emperor for the

foundation of Peiyang University

Tianj in Univers i ty

Founded in 1895 as Peiyang University,

Tianjin University is the first modern

higher education institution in China.

In 2017, Tianjin University was selected as one of the first batch of “Double

world-classes” universities in China, aiming to build the world-class

university and the world-class subjects. Chemical engineering, chemistry,

materials science and management etc. are chosen as the key ones for

developing world-class disciplines.

1959

1996

2000

2010

2012

First batch

of 16

national key

universities

First batch of key

universities

under Project 211

Engineering

education

reform trial

First national

“2011 collaborative

innovation” center

2017

New engineering

education

“Double world-classes”

university A

1895

Found

Tianj in Univers i ty

Pioneered the development of higher education

First batch of key

universities

under Project 985

Industrial chemistry lecture hall

STARTFROM1895 NOW1925

1925 Industrial chemistry lecture

hallProf. Debang Hou and Xuhuai Ding

1937 Northwest United University

1952Seven top chemical engineering

departments were merged into TJU

2002 No.1 in China Discipline Ranking

2008 Accredited by IChemE as “Master

Level”

2013 Tianjin Co-Innovation Center of

Chemical Science and Engineering

Industrial chemistry lecture hall

1937 1946

Chemical engineering department

1952

School of Chemical Engineering & Technology

was founded

1997

SCET in Tian j in Univers i ty

In 1950s, we did a lot of works on the edition and revision of

basic textbooks for chemical engineering, which were

extended used in the countrywide universities and promoted

the progress of the subject.

SCET in Tian j in Univers i ty

SCET in Tian j in Univers i ty

Petrochemical Industry

Distillation

Industry Crystallization

Industry oriented

development

With the deepening of economy development, the school encourage

teachers to focus their researches on technologies that meet national

demands and industry needs. In this way, the school developed rapidly

by school-enterprise cooperation.

Move to New Campus

Teaching & Cultivating

Teaching

Innovat ive Engineer ing Educat ion

International Forum for Engineering Education

Second to none,

anywhere

Innovative

Engineering

Education

Conference for

Leading

Engineering

Universities

Chemical Engineering

➢

➢

➢

IChemE Cert i f icat ion

✓ Tianjin University is the first university in China,

one of Asia's only two universities to get the

Institution of Chemical Engineers(IChemE) the

highest level of "Master Level" certification.

✓ The two chairmen of IChemE praised the

chemical engineering professional of Tianjin

University as "one of the world's best chemical

engineering education".

Discip l ine Ranking

Ranked No.1 in China Discipline

Ranking for consecutive ranking

years of 2003, 2007, 2012 and 2017

by the Ministry of Education, China

Discip l ine Ranking

Chemical Engineering in

Tianjin University Ranked No.3

around the world in Shanghai

Ranking's Global Ranking of

Academic Subjects.

Amount of Publications

Impact of Publications

International Cooperation

Publications in Top Journals

Prestigious Awards

criteria

Publ ic Serv ices

ApplicationMarket

share (%)

Crude and vacuum

distillation for refining80~90

Petrochemical industry 40~60

Air separation distillation 70~80

Distillation technology occupied the

main domestic market

老挝老挝老挝老挝

Industrial crystallization technology was applied in

nationwide chemical industries

Multiple initiative techniques

for synthesis of bulk

chemicals from biomass

Leading innovation in

synthetic biology Syngas conversion to oxygenated chemicals

Dist i l la t ion in TJU

❖ Technical advantages

✓ Single capacity 10 million tons/year

✓ Largest diameter column, 13.7 m

✓ First design of vacuum column

✓ Saving energy more than 20％

❖ Patents

✓Authorized invention patent 13 items

❖ Industrial applications

✓Domestic market share reaches 70%

Petroleum refining

vacuum column

Representat ive Cases of Dis t i l la t ion

Ethylene quenching system

quenching tower

National Prize in China

Important Awards in Dist i l la t ion

More than 10,000 towers are widely used in petroleum, energy,

pharmaceutical, environmental and other fields;

In the past five years, it has created direct economic benefits for

application enterprises of nearly 10 billion RMB.

In 2015, more than 200 contracts were signed, the contract amount

was 300 million RMB, and the contract in 2017 was more than 180

contracts, and 180 million RMB.

Commercia l Appl icat ions

Indust r ia l Crysta l l i za t ion in TJU

National International Joint Research Centre of Crystallization Engineering

Innovation of industrial

crystallization technology

is the core competence of

the corporation for

production of the high

value and high quality

crystals.

Low energy, high efficacy for

protein, isomers separation

High purity and tailor-made crystal

form, habit and size

Nat ional Demands Lead Innovat ion

In the past 40 years, according to the national demands, we have extended our

research to different chemical industries.

Over 100 automated production lines have been designed and built.

To date，the crystallization technology developed by TJU has been

applied in all Chinese pharmaceutical factories for penicillin production.

Penicillin G Potassium Salt

Representat ive Case of Crysta l l i za t ion

Award Year of Granted

National Science and Technological Progress Award-Second Prize1996, 1999,

2010, 2015

National Technology Invention Award-Second Prize 2008

National Technology Invention Award-Third Prize 1996

Tianjin Science and Technological Progress Award-First Prize2007, 2012,

2014, 2015

MoE Science and Technological Progress Award-First Prize1995, 1998,

2006

Chinese Patent Award-Excellence2009, 2011,

2013, 2015

CPCIF Science and Technological Progress Award-Second Prize 2011, 2013

CIUR Innovation and Promotion Award 2009

✓ 6 National Science and Technology Awards

✓ 14 Ministerial and Provincial-Level Science and Technology Awards

Awards and Honors

Commercia l Appl icat ions

✓ The first designated bio-fuel ethanol plants in China

✓ The first cassava bio-ethanol plant built in China

✓ The first sweet sorghum stem bio-ethanol plant built in China

✓ The first 20,000 MTA industrial cellulosic bio-ethanol plant in China

The internationally leading level of non-food fuel ethanol production

technology (sugar grass cane, cassava and cellulose as raw material)

with intellectual property right has been developed by Prof. Minhua

Zhang and his coworkers.

21 Chinese patents has been authorized.

13 plants have been set up using this technology: COFCO, CNPC,

ZTE Energy, et al., including:

Bio-ethanol Technology

This technology hold 70%

technical share in Chinese fuel

ethanol industries and 100% in

industries using cassava as raw

material.

Commercia l Appl icat ions

Bio-ethylene and Vinyl Acetate

Based on the bio-ethanol technology, the production process of bio-ethylene

and its derivatives was developed as well, to form a complete industrial

chain.

In 2012, the world's first 50,000 MTA of ethylene and 100,000 MTA vinyl

acetate plant based on biomass was built and start-up using this technology.

• Chinese Patent Award of excellence

• Tianjin Patent gold award

5 Chinese patents and 4 international patents (US/JP/SP) have been

authorized.

广维化工10万吨生物醋酸乙烯工业装置

Founded in 29 May 2012 Identified on 11 Apr 2013

The Project of 2011

Tianjin Collaborative

Innovation Center of

Chemical Science

and Engineering

——one of the First

Identified Members

of “The Project of

2011” in China.

Overseas Par tners

Tianj in Co- Innovat ion Center

Tianjin Co-Innovation

Center of Chemical

Science and Engineering

Nature Index in

2015 Ranked No. 2

in china, No. 6 in

the world in the

similar research

center.

Germany

Japan

China Natural Group's journal

published a special report,

covering the center of the

research results.

Nature Vol. 537

No. 7618_supp

ppS1-S48,

By Annabel

McGilvray

Front ier Academics

• In 2014, the United States

ranked synthetic biology as

one of the six subversive

fundamental research fields.

• Yuan from Tianjin University

together with his partners

initialed an international

project of “Synthetic yeast

genome project (Sc2.0)”.

Science. 2014. 343:1426-1429.

Leading research in Synthetic biology

2013 National Synthetic Biotechnology International Cooperation Base

2004 Education Minister Jiang

Scholar Innovation Team

HongfangChen and

Zongding HuPioneering in Biochemistry

2001Biochemical industry

has become a national

key discipline

Yingjin Yuan and Yan Sun

et alYoung talents

grow up

In 2011, the artificial yeast gene was combined into an international cooperation plan

Established the key laboratory of the Ministry of Education in 2010

Innovative research community in synthetic biology and bioprocessing

Biological reactionand Biological

separation1986-1994

Biological processing1995-2005

Synthetic biology2005-

Strengthening biological reactions and biological

separation processes using chemical engineering principles

Systematic metabolic engineering analysis and enhanced

bioprocessing

Research extends to the area of synthetic biology, strengthen the

biological processing process through rational design

Keep up with national demands and international frontiers, forming a new

growth point in synthetic biology

Synthet ic Bio logy

Research Team

Innovation Research Group of National

Natural Science Foundation of China

——Synthetic biology and biological

processing

Synthet ic Bio logy

Tianjin University published 2《Science》papers in the field of synthetic biology

In March 2017,

Wu, Yi, et al. "Bug mapping and fitness testing of chemically synthesized chromosome X." Science 355.6329 (2017): eaaf4706.

Xie, Ze-Xiong, et al. "“Perfect” designer chromosome V and behavior of a ring derivative." Science 355.6329 (2017): eaaf4704.

Leading research in Synthetic biology

2017 Top Ten Science

Progress in China

This latest study “is a

significant milestone

towards creation of the first

fully synthetic eukaryotic

genome,” Daniel Gibson.

Nature commun. 9 (1), 1933 Nature commun. 9 (1), 1934 Nature commun. 9 (1), 1935

Design and develop novel synthesis of genomes, give new

function to the synthetic genomes.

Typical scientific case: SCRaMbLE to accelerate evolution.

Highlighted by Nature and Nature Biotechnology.

Synthet ic Bio logy

✓ Granted 10 of National Key R&D Program of China (Project) with total

funding of 245 million RMB

✓ Granted 19 of National Key R&D Program of China (Subject)

✓ Granted 18 of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Major

Program or more important ones)

✓ High atom economy

✓ In line with national requirements✓ High selectivity of target product

✓ Environmentally friendly

Ut i l i za t ion of Syngas

Synthesis of oxygenated compounds from syngas

Ut i l i za t ion of Syngas

Ut i l i za t ion of Syngas

Synthesis of EG f rom Syngas v ia DMO

The amount of Pd was reduced 85%,

and the cost of catalyst was reduced 70%

Catalysts Pd (wt%) STY/(g·L-1h-1) STYPd/(g·g-1·h-1)

Monolithic 0.7 600 733

Granular 0.7 650 60•High pressure drop

•High-cost catalyst (Pd)

•Scale-up effect

Pd/Al2O3Pd/MOx/cordierite

Chem. Eng. Sci. 2011, 66, 3513 ZL201010191579.6

Taking 400,000 tons/year of ethylene glycol synthesis as an example, the

one-time investment of DMO synthesis catalyst decreased from about 360

million to 110 million RMB.

JP 5947792 IN 291884

Monol i th ic Cata lyst for DMO Synthesis

Cu O Si

LHSV= 3.0 h-1, H2/DMO=200

Cover story, highlighted by

JACS and Nature China

The stability was

significantly improved

by the Cu@CuPS-

nanotube structure.

Highlighted by Nature

China

Nature Commun. 2013, 4, 2339

Successfully prepared catalyst with stable coexisted Cu0 and Cu+ species.

The selectivity for EtOH or EG can be tuned simply by regulating the reaction

temperature. A new route for EtOH synthesis was first proposed.

Cata lysts for DMO Hydrogenat ion to EG

2 0 0 n m 1 0 0 n m 5 0 n m

As a project for annual output of 200,000 tons

of EG synthesized from syngas via DMO

hydrogenation, when the H2/DMO decreases

form 80 to 20, the H2 recycling volume could

be decreased from 72,000 m3/h to 18,000 m3/h,

causing a reduction of 70% in the energy

consumption and 15-20 % in equipment cost.

The nanotube-assembled hollow sphere hierarchical structure could

significantly decrease the H2/ester in feed. It is attributed to the

effect of H2 enrichment inside nanoreactor.

NAHS

NTs Cu/SiO2

NAHS H2/DMO=20

ACS Catal., 2018, 8, 1218 (Cover Story)PCT/CN2018/080544

NAHS for DMO Hydrogenat ion to EG

EG Synthesis Technology

Patents of EG/ EtOH Synthesis

Binhai Industrial Research Institute, Tianjin University

Tons/year Cata lyst Product ion L ine

In 2016, we are entitled of “Innovation team in key areas of science and technology” by the MOST of China.

Scale -up of EG Synthesis Technology

Scale -up of EG Synthesis Technology

✓ 200,000 tons/year EG synthesis from syngas in Hebei

——Supplying the catalysts for DMO hydrogenation

✓ 50,000 tons/year Oxalic acid synthesis from syngas in Shandong

——Supplying the whole process technology and catalysts

Frontiers of Chemical Science and EngineeringEditor-in-Chief: Jingkang Wang (Tianjin University, China)

《化学科学与工程前沿》作为中国工程院院刊之一，由天津大学承办，王静康院士任主编。高等教育出版社负责国内出版发行，国际上则由Springer发行。

2016年期刊被SCI收录，现在的影响因子为2.643.

FCSE is a leading peer-reviewed internationaljournal co-sponsored by the Chinese Academyof Engineering, Tianjin University and HigherEducation Press. Co-published by Springer.

The SCI impact factor is 2.643.

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