On April 22, 2022, PKU Pioneer held the 2021 Annual Work Summary Conference. For PKU Pioneer, 2021 is a year of great significance. The general manager, Tang Wei, announced in the annual work report that the increased order intake last year amounts to approx. $222 million, an increase of 138% year-on-year. This is the sixth consecutive year that PKU Pioneer breaks the highest record in history and it’s the first time our performance exceeds $200 million, which ranks top in the VPSA & PSA industry. PKU Pioneer has maintained high growth for many years consecutively, looking back at history, 2021 is a key year for us to achieve leapfrog development.

In the past year, PKU Pioneer has won 68 projects in total and 110 were under construction, including 88 VPSA & PSA oxygen production projects. In recent years, the ordering volumes of PKU Pioneer have maintained a high level, and the number of projects in construction has also reached a historical peak in 2021. Ever-better results strongly promotes the company to upgrade the overall management, optimize the production efficiency, improve the project management strength and construction quality, as a result, the brand effect of PKU Pioneer in recent years has been manifested in a broader market scope, helping us to obtain more orders and forming a virtuous cycle of sustainable development for the company.

In 2021, the iron and steel industry continued the strong momentum, which led to the increasing demand of enterprises to expand their businesses. The activeness of the market provides broad space for PKU Pioneer’s oxygen production business development. PKU Pioneer has signed a total of 52 oxygen generation projects throughout the year, with a total oxygen capacity of 500,000Nm3/h and the average capacity of a single project of approximately 10,000Nm3/h. In December 2021, the largest 87,500Nm3/h VPSA oxygen equipment built by PKU Pioneer for Hunan Valin Lianyuan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. was successfully put into operation. In response to the client’s requirement, PKU Pioneer set the shortest construction period record of completing a VPSA oxygen production project. The equipment successfully alleviated the oxygen demand of the steel mill and greatly reduced the cost of oxygen consumption, thus achieving energy conservation and efficiency enhancement.

The remarkable performance lays a solid foundation to promote the progress of the industry. In September 2021, PKU Pioneer’s VPSA industrial oxygen production project was put into operation in Golmud, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a place with the highest altitude in China. Since oxygen is scarce in plateau areas, to generate equivalent oxygen, more air has to be fed than in plain areas. The design capacity of the VPSA oxygen system is 4100Nm3/h with the purity of 93%. The practical oxygen flow reached 4222Nm3/h, with 3% overproduction, and in addition, the oxygen purity reached 93.67%. This means that VPSA oxygen units in China, medium or large-sized, have achieved stable 93% oxygen supply for non-ferrous metal smelting under the alpine and anoxic environment in plateau areas. The performance indicators, such as the oxygen capacity, purity, unit power consumption, etc. of the project have always remained stable and were even better than the design values. It helps to save the oxygen cost for the customer and enhance the comprehensive benefits, which is the biggest highlight of the project.

Apart from a series of breakthrough projects such as ultra-intelligent control, ultra-large oxygen capacity, and ultra-short construction period, PKU Pioneer is also striving to expand the application fields and scenarios of VPSA oxygen generation technology. In October 2021, the company signed a cooperation agreement with CATL, a leader in new energy batteries, to supply the client with VPSA oxygen generators. The product oxygen is designed to be used as the protective gas in the production process of lithium battery electrode sheets, which is the first time to apply VPSA oxygen plant to provide the protective gas in the lithium battery industry. So far, PKU Pioneer has further promoted the industrial application of VPSA oxygen equipment in more than 20 sub-industrial fields.

According to the industry data analysis, China is one of the countries with the most in-depth and mature industrial application of VPSA oxygen generation technology. With the improvement of VPSA and PSA oxygen generation technology as well as the continuous upgrading and rising of oxygen production capacity, PKU Pioneer has earned more market opportunities overseas.

In May 2021, PKU Pioneer reached cooperation with South Korea's largest cement maker on a VPSA oxygen unit project (5000Nm3/h, 90%). South Korea is the 8th largest industrial country in the world and its heavy industry is at the leading level. In this project, referring to the existing oxygen solution for cement kilns in China, SSANGYONG C&E evaluated the feasibility and comprehensive economic benefits of the VPSA oxygen generating process and tried for the first time to equip cement kilns with VPSA oxygen plans for oxygen-enriched combustion supporting, which will help the user to effectively save 20% of coal consumption. Also, this project is also PKU Pioneer’s largest VPSA oxygen generation unit exported to developed countries.

Benefiting from the growing brand awareness and influence of PKU Pioneer in the international market, PKU Pioneer’s VPSA oxygen equipment entered South America in 2021 for the first time. In October 2021, PKU Pioneer won the bid for the oxygen generation project of the world’s leading refractory supplier in Brazil, achieving a major breakthrough in the VPSA oxygen generation business in South America.

"Throughout 2021, PKU Pioneer continued to increase investment in new technology R & D and process optimization, covering special gas fields, solid waste treatment, new adsorbents and catalysts research & development, etc." Tang Wei revealed in the work report, "When applying for valuable qualifications like High and New Technology Enterprise, there are rigid requirements for the annual cost in research and development to reach the specified proportion of annual output value. As a leading manufacturer based on technological innovation in the gas industry, PKU Pioneer sets the goal of becoming an engineering company with strong R&D capabilities and advanced core technologies and products. We’ll continue to conduct deep explorations to promote the development of the industry.”

The doubling of performance comes with a test of PKU Pioneer’s production load capacity. At the beginning of 2021, seeing the business growth momentum, the management of PKU Pioneer paid great attention to the market trend and took reactions quickly to start the production capacity optimization plan of the molecular sieve factory. Within just a few months, PKU Pioneer technical team completed the expansion and transformation of the PU-8 adsorbent production line, as a result, the output capacity increased by more than 120%, which effectively ensures the supply of oxygen adsorbents for new oxygen production projects, thus strongly supporting the business development.

Up to now, all the foreign customers of PKU Pioneer are the world's top manufacturers or high-tech giants, which are highly concerned by the global market. These enterprises have strict requirements on suppliers' qualifications, process capability, service quality, after-sales guarantee, etc. Cooperating with PKU Pioneer manifests the wide recognition and preference of the international market for the PSA & VPSA oxygen technology of PKU Pioneer. In recent years, the demand of overseas market has also been quietly changing - with notable advantages of the shorter construction period and lower cost, the VPSA and PSA oxygen generation technology is going to supplement or replace the traditional cryogenic oxygen production in the future.