1,3-PROPANEDIOL

Background

Background

• Professor Lau at Tsinghua university developed key technology for producing PDO by fermentation method and granted a patent.
• In 2012, Shenghong group (the biggest polyester manufacturer in China) signed a patent licensing. In August 2015, started producing 20,000 tons of PDO a year. Now it is used as monomer for PTT fiber.
• As the technology which Professor Lau had developed was proved to be industrialized by Shenghong group, Tsinghua university collected fund to establish their own industrial company.

Circumstances ～ Future Prospect

• In January 2017, the production platform for 1,3-propanediol and 2,3-butanediol was established in Dongguan city of Guangdong province with 175 million yuan (2.8 billion yen) in capital. In March 2018, the PDO production line was officially put into production at liangshan factory in Jining of Shandong. Current capacity is 10,000 tons a year.
• Now, the third-generation technology is adopted. Compared with the first-generation technology Shenghong uses, it has achieved obtaining better strain, higher yield and excellent quality of products.
• The annual output is estimated to be gradually reached to 50,000-100,000 tons.

Tsinghua Universty

• Established in 1911 and one of the National Key Universities.
• Tsinghua University is ranked as the number one university in the whole Asia and 22nd in the world higher than Peking University by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020.
• Tsinghua University is excellent in industrial research field and has overtaken the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to top the list of Best Global Universities for Engineering published by the U.S. News & World Report.