PKU Pioneer Sees Surging Performance in VPSA Oxygen Units and PSA Industrial Exhaust Gas Purification, Reaching Nearly $231 Million Revenue in 2021
Newsfile Corp.
11 min read
Beijing, China--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2022) - On April 22, 2022, PKU Pioneer held the 2021 Annual Work Summary Conference. For PKU Pioneer, 2021 was a year of great significance. The general manager, Tang Wei, announced in the annual work report that the increased order intake last year amounted to approx. $222 million, an increase of 138% year-on-year. This was the sixth consecutive year that PKU Pioneer broke the highest record in history and it was the first time its performance exceeded $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 was a key year for it 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 have also reached a historical peak in 2021. Ever-better results strongly promoted 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 it 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 pole pieces, which is the first time to apply VPSA oxygen plant to provide the protective gas in the lithium battery industry. So far, VPSA 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. PKU Pioneer will 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.
PKU Pioneer has been thoroughly implementing the long-term strategy for the development of environmental protection. Taking the efficient utilization of industrial exhaust gas as the entry point and the continuous improvement of gas purification technology as the sharp weapon, PKU Pioneer has been creating great value in environmental protection and fulfilling the corporate social responsibility of building green industrial development. In addition to the major business of VPSA & PSA oxygen production, in 2021, PKU Pioneer's implemented projects of industrial tail gas disposal included PSA (pressure swing adsorption) CO purification projects, flue gas desulfurization & denitrification projects, yellow phosphorus tail gas continuous purification and dephosphorization projects, and blast furnace gas fine desulfurization projects.
In October 2021, the world's first raw coke oven gas-to-ethylene glycol project was put into operation, in which the world's largest PSA-CO purification plant built by PKU Pioneer was successfully put into production. The product CO (45,720Nm3/h, >98.5%) purified by PSA process would all be used for ethylene glycol production. The project pioneered the comprehensive usage and realized the maximum utilization of low-value raw coke oven gas, and finally transformed the complex raw coke oven gas into effective syngas resources, which enabled the customer effectively utilize 3 billion cubic meters of raw coal gas every year, save 600,000 tons of standard coal, and reduce 600,000 tons of CO2 emissions directly.
In June 2021, PKU Pioneer's CO separation technology from converter gas passed the evaluation of scientific & technological achievements by the Chinese Society for Metals and was rated at the international advanced level. The technology has been successfully promoted and applied in many large iron & steel mills in recent years and a remarkable result has also been achieved in 2021- PKU Pioneer won the bid for the syngas project of Taiwan's largest steel manufacturer, China Steel Corporation (CSC), which is a demonstration plant built by PKU Pioneer in CSC applying CO purification technology for converter gas. The project is now under intense construction.
Since the implementation of the ultra-low emission policy in China's iron and steel industry, PKU Pioneer has paid high attention to the market demand for BFG fine desulfurization in iron & steel plants. After conducting feasibility studies on desulfurization technology for its gas consumption and emission points in iron & steel mills, PKU Pioneer proposed the targeted blast furnace gas front-end desulfurization solution. In the second half of 2021, PKU Pioneer successively won the bids for the BFG fine desulfurization projects of Hebei Tangyin Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Wuhai Baogang Wanteng Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. The blast furnace gas would fully meet the ultra-low emission standards after being treated by the dry desulfurization process without producing any waste liquid, which is a preferred process of fine desulfurization for iron & steel mills in China.
In parallel with fine desulfurization, the integrated desulfurization, denitrification and dust removal technology has also made significant progress in industrial applications. In July 2021, PKU Pioneer's first desulfurization and denitrification exhaust gas disposal & environmental protection project for Sichuan Glass Fiber Co. Ltd. successfully passed the acceptance. In this project, PKU Pioneer achieved the one-step reduction of HCl, HF, SOx, NOx, particulate matter and other pollutants in the flue gas, helping the customer's fiberglass production line easily and efficiently meet the ultra-low emission standards for exhaust gas.
In terms of purification and utilization of yellow phosphorus tail gas, the tail gas dephosphorization pilot plant established by PKU Pioneer in a power plant has been running for one and a half years with stable performance and the total phosphorus in purified yellow phosphorus tail gas is below 1mg/m3. Combined with the mature desulfurization process, the purified tail gas can be used for power generation or chemical synthesis, which is an economical and feasible process for yellow phosphorus manufacturers to achieve efficient utilization of phosphorus off-gas. In August 2021, PKU Pioneer's"Complete Set of Continuous Catalytic Oxidation and Purification Plant for Yellow Phosphorus Tail Gas - DePOx" was selected into the First (Set of) Major Technical Equipment Catalog in Beijing. Up to now, PKU Pioneer has successfully implemented two yellow phosphorus tail gas dephosphorization and purification projects, which will greatly improve the economic benefits of the customers and help them get rid of the dilemma of "dual control" policies of energy consumption. Therefore, the two demonstration projects have attracted great attention from the yellow phosphorus industry.
For more than 20 years, PKU Pioneer has been keeping its feet on the ground and implementing steady management for business development. Relying on strong R&D strength, advanced technologies, excellent engineering projects, steady administration, efficient management and honest behaviors, PKU Pioneer has expanded larger market and become the hidden champion in various segmented industries, helping promote the high-quality development of VPSA & PSA gas separation industry. Looking ahead to 2022, the external environment is getting more and more complicated and serious. PKU Pioneer will face up to the challenges to seize more opportunities, seek progress while maintaining stability and bravely explore the journey in the new development pattern.
