2019-11-26
1.Based on Science & Technology at the Beginning
In 1988, Xie Youchang, a professor at Peking University, developed a copper-based adsorbent with high selectivity for carbon monoxide based on the principle of spontaneous monolayer dispersion in basic research. The new adsorbent won US, Canadian and Chinese patents and was rated as the best known carbon monoxide adsorbent with much higher adsorption capacity and selectivity than those reported in the literature. In 1991, it was recognized as a national new product.
Xie Youchang believes that chemistry is a highly applicable discipline, and combining theory with practice is essential to generate utility values for the country and society. Therefore, he conducted pilot production of carbon monoxide adsorbent with the R&D team when several well-known international gas companies focused on the highly-efficient adsorbents and all expressed their clear intentions to cooperate with him. However, many problems emerging in the negotiation stage stopped the joint work.
After more than 10 years' striving for adsorbent industrialization, in 1999, Peking University Science and Technology Development Office, together with Peking University Resources decided to invest in Pioneer. On October 13, 1999, Beijing Peking University Pioneer Technology Co., Ltd. finally entered the field of gas separation with the newly-developed pressure swing adsorption process, raising its sails and advancing toward the Blue Ocean market.
The practical results proved that it is difficult to meet the needs of users by simply selling adsorbents. Thus Pioneer transformed company's business into supplying complete engineering equipment, which changed the future development once and for all. At this time, Pioneer initiated the exploration for PSA technology engineering.
Under the impetus of the whole enterprise, the first to obtain the gas separation market ticket is the pressure swing adsorption oxygen technology.
In 2000, the first pilot PSA oxygen plant was set up. The technicians proposed the power consumption of pure oxygen is 0.35kw/h per cubic meter, which is rather higher compared with the standard 0.46 kw/h for domestic PSA oxygen generation.
This oxygen plant with production capacity of 50 m3/hr attracted many experts to visit. The researchers present were all amazed at the miniaturized body, which had never been available before.
After two years, Pioneer finally received the first oxygen production order in 2001. However, there was technical blind spot behind the civil works and adsorbent loading, which seemed to be progressing smoothly. 3-4 hours after starting up , the adsorbent bed in the adsorption tower was instantly overturned due to the strong brush of the gas. Pioneer took measures in a timely manner- the technicians went down the tower at one o'clock in the morning and tried to reload the adsorbent. However, repeated attempts were ended by repeated failures, making the problem more serious than expected. According to the on-site analysis, Xie Youchang scaled up the volume from 50 m3/hr to 1000 m3/hr, which needs to solve the problem of air distribution.
For PSA oxygen plant, successful transition from the traditional 5A molecular sieve to the new lithium-based one needs experience to master the stable process, and the trial and error above just promotes the process optimization of company's air distributor for the flat adsorption bed, which became the key to ensure stable operation in the subsequent market competition.
After being optimized, the plant successfully generated oxygen, meanwhile, the overall user experience was improved. Pioneer never shirked the responsibility or deceived the clients, and its integrated service has been affirmed and appreciated. Therefore, the trust was seeded and then bloomed in Hengyang Valin Steel Tube Co., Ltd.10 years later, which is the world's 1st BFG to High-CV gas project.
In 2003, it was the case that Jiangsu Danhua Group Co., Ltd needed to purify carbon monoxide from semi-water gas. The responsible personnel learned about the PSA carbon monoxide separation technology of Pioneer after investigations. The feed gas has a high nitrogen content. Therefore, the CO yield would be less than 60%, and the purity couldn't be guaranteed using 5A molecular sieve, which obviously couldn't meet their technical requirements. After discussions, the head leader told Zhang Jiaping, the general manager of Pioneer, that only the CO separation technology of Pioneer matched the project. Pioneer's highly-direct and efficient performance opened a new journey of oxygen and carbon monoxide business.
2. Lay a Solid Foundation for Stable Development
On February 11, 2007, there were still 7 days from the Spring Festival. In the morning, awards were solemnly announced in the Great Hall of the People where the winner of the 2005 National Technological Invention Xie Youchang stood on the podium and received the second prize certificate from Premier Wen Jiabao. The high-efficiency carbon monoxide separation technology has won the 1st national technological invention award in the history of Peking University after being amended and demonstrated by industrial practices. Throughout the entire gas separation field, there is no second enterprise that can win the laurel.
In 2007, Pioneer won the bid for the supporting project of ethylene glycol for Shanghai Jinmei Chemical Co.,Ltd.. This contract was signed for a comprehensive gas project worth ¥200 million, including oxygen production, carbon monoxide and hydrogen purification, thus becoming the single contract with the largest amount. In December, 2009, this project was put into operation and turned out qualified products. At the same time, oxygen generation has broken the record in history, namely, Pioneer entered into VPSA 40,700 Nm3/h oxygen production contract with Guizhou Kailin Xifeng Synthetic Ammonia Co., Ltd successfully.
Ethylene Glycol Supporting Plant for Shanghai Jinmei Chemical
In 2009, a large amount of enterprises went down in financial crisis owning to the deteriorated market environment caused by the crisis. But Pioneer stood firm waiting for the economy recovery. This year, the company obtained orders near ¥300 million and became one of the most professional suppliers of pressure swing adsorption technology, which enabled it to stand at the top in this field.
As PSA oxygen generation technology widely being applied, the domestic technology gained international competitiveness. The company devoted to improving customer experience by optimizing process design and service through difference competition. The success implementation of this strategy brought about the vigorous development of the company.
In 2012, the company overcame many difficulties and hardships and won the bid for oxygen production plant for Sichuan Glass Fibre Group, which was the first oxygen supply project. Pioneer targeted customer groups with specific needs and established a gas supply company particularly, thereby turning the gas flow into the cash flow by selling both plant and gas.
Energy consumption reduction is an important index to represent the advancement of oxygen production process and even the lifeline of the company. Technical engineers have had a very serious exploration in this respect.The company developed radial bed process and signed the first set of radial-bed oxygen production plant contract with Linzhou Guangyuan New Material Science & Technology Company with the electricity consumption for pure oxygen per square meter is only 0.29kw/h, over 20% lower than that of axial bed.
3. Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Exhaust Gas
Technology innovation can provide more chances for business expansion as far as gas separation is concerned. As regards the concrete operation strategy, making use of industrial exhaust gas shall be carried out. For example, high-purity CO can be purified from steel plant gas, and used as the raw material for C-1 chemistry. The joint production of steel and chemistry is proposed against this background.
In 2012, Pioneer put into operation the BFG to CO purification plant in Hualing Henggang Steel Pipe Co., Ltd.. In this project, CO was not synthesized chemically but acted as natural gas only to meet the demands of the steel plant，which achieved the anterior stage of joint production of steel and chemistry. A year later, Pioneer provided Xinjiang Tianye Group Co. ,Ltd with the calcium carbide furnace exhaust to CO purification plant to synthesize ethylene glycol, thus realizing the latter stage of joint production of steel and chemical industry. In fact, the two projects are the only worldwide BFG to CO and calcium carbide furnace exhaust to CO purification plant in this respect until now, which are the periodical achievements guided by joint production of steel and chemical industry.
As the third largest steel production province of China, Shandong owns 22 steel enterprises. Of those, Shiheng Special Steel Group Co., Ltd, the largest steel enterprise in Feicheng, completed the merger with Shandong Aside Chemical Co., Ltd. in 2016 and established an ultra-large conglomerate integrating steel, chemistry and other industrial chains. In January 2017, Pioneer developed a complete set of BOFG to CO purification plant in the steel plant area of Shiheng Special Steel Group Co., Ltd.. The product is delivered to formic acid production line continually through underground pipeline of 13 kilometers long.
The Word’s 1st Set BOFG to Formic Acid for ShanDong Aside
A year later, Pioneer concluded the second project contract for joint production of steel and chemistry with Shanxi Liheng Iron & Steel Co.,Ltd.
Shanxi Liheng Iron & Steel Co.,Ltd successfully extends iron & steel industry to chemical production by utilizing purified CO from BOFB and H2 from COG as the feed gas for ethylene glycol (EG) synthesizing. According to the current EG price at ¥7,500/t and steel at ¥3,800/t, the project increases production value amounting to 600,000 tons of steel compared to ¥2.25 billion of EG.
In 2018, Pioneer's complete set of plants using industrial exhaust gas containing rich CO makes the company the only enterprise utilizing industrial exhaust gas listed in the Catalog of National Encouraged Major Environment Protection Technical Equipment. Pioneer's advancement and innovation has been recognized technically at home and our plants are ensured the feasibility to be widely used.
In 2007, Pioneer's 10500 Nm3/h PSA-CO plant, with the largest capacity worldwide at that time, was successfully commissioned in Yulin.
In 2010, Pioneer exported the largest 8000Nm3/h oxygen production plant to Zambia.
In 2015, Pioneer won the bid for oxygen generation project for Sichuan Zhongke Glass Co., Ltd.(2200Nm3/h, 93%), thus realizing the application of PSA oxygen production technology in the glass bottle production for the first time.
In 2016, Pioneer signed the refinery blast furnace upgrading and transformation contract with the largest steel company in India to develop 15,000 Nm3/h oxygen production plant, setting a new record for China's export of PSA oxygen plant.
In 2017, Pioneer signed the fourth set of VPSA oxygen production contract and established firm cooperation with Baotou Huading Copper Company.
In 2018, the first set of VPSA oxygen production plant for electric furnace steel-making was successfully commissioned in Luzhou, Sichuan.
In 2018, the first global coke oven gas to ethylene glycol project was put into operation with the supporting PSA-CO and PSA-H2 plant supplied by Pioneer.
In 2019, the H2 production plant of an ethylene glycol(EG) project achieved the operation in Anhui Haoyuan Chemical Group. This is our 33th set of PSA plant used for coal to EG production. Till then, Pioneer has been involved in a total of 22 ethylene glycol production projects.
In October 2019, Pioneer won the bid for the first raw coke oven gas (N2>50%,CO≈28%) to ethylene glycol project and will build the largest PSA-CO plant, which would be the first plant to purify CO by raw coke oven gas in the world.
Up to 2019, Pioneer has built over 280 sets of PSA gas separation plants and become the professional supplier of pressure swing absorption technology in the world.
