Academy awards ethanol, semiconductor discoveries

The world's largest steel-plant-gas-based ethanol project is operating smoothly in Huaibei, Anhui province, with an annual production capacity of 600,000 metric tons.

This marks a significant step in the industrialization of ethanol production and underscores China's leadership in coal-to-ethanol technology, driven by innovations from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This achievement is among a series of technologies that have recently been recognized with outstanding scientific and technological achievement awards from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Established in 2002, these annual awards honor significant contributions to breakthroughs in key core technologies and the advancement of industry.

"Ethanol is a widely used bulk chemical with energy properties, mainly produced through grain fermentation, which raises food security concerns. Therefore, developing non-grain ethanol production technologies is a major focus for academia and industry," said Zhu Wenliang, a professor at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics.

Dedicated to advancing ethanol production technology since 2010,Zhu's team has introduced a novel process that transforms steel plant gas into ethanol through catalysis. This process offers advantages such as high atomic economy, direct production of anhydrous ethanol, and the use of noncorrosive materials and reaction conditions.

The scientists have also addressed the core technological bottleneck of catalysts, which previously suffered from low activity and instability. They have developed a catalyst with a lifespan of up to two years, capable of maintaining its activity under mild conditions, significantly enhancing the economic viability and sustainability of the ethanol production process.

The technology package for ethanol production — including production techniques, proprietary reactors, process flows, and plant operating methods — has been verified by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. It has been evaluated as possessing "advanced technical indicators and strong applicability, with its main indicators reaching an internationally leading level compared to similar technologies worldwide".

Last year, another new project was launched in Shandong province, bringing the total number of such projects to seven, with a combined annual production capacity of 2.65 million metric tons.

"This technological innovation has paved a new way for the clean and efficient utilization of coal, providing essential support for China's energy, food, and chemical industry chain security," Zhu said.

He added that the research team plans to extend this method to western regions, such as the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. They will further improve catalyst performance and optimize process technologies to enhance economic feasibility.

In addition to acknowledging technological innovations, the 14 outstanding scientific and technological achievement awards also celebrated advancements in fundamental research. Among these is the groundbreaking exploration of ductile inorganic semiconductors, which transcends the traditional boundaries between metals and inorganic nonmetallic materials.

Inorganic semiconductors, known for their adjustable conductivity and diverse properties in electrical, optical, thermal, magnetic, and acoustic fields, are of strategic importance in the high-end equipment and electronics sectors.

"The academic community generally believed that inorganic semiconductors could not achieve the same plasticity as metals on a macroscopic scale. Our goal is to challenge this impossibility," said Shi Xun, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Leading in this research area, the team has made a major international discovery of two macroscopic plastic inorganic semiconductors at room temperature — silver sulfide and indium selenide. These materials can be greatly compressed, bent, and twisted without cracking. The team further expanded their research to other materials, identifying more than 20 types of such ductile semiconductors with room-temperature plasticity.

Building on these discoveries, the researchers have developed new materials that combine plasticity with functional advantages, enhancing the potential applications of ductile inorganic semiconductors in fields such as solid-state batteries and photodetectors.

They have also developed innovative devices, such as ultrathin, flexible thermoelectric devices, which boast a power density four times that of commercial devices. Notably, some of these achievements have already been transferred and commercialized.

Shi emphasized the promising future of ductile inorganic semiconductors, adding that they plan to deepen their research in this area and advance industrial applications.