In recent years, Anhui has opened up the blockages in the transformation of scientific research achievements and promoted more "flowers of science and technology" to bear "fruits of industry". As a landmark highland of science and technology innovation in the construction of a high-level innovative province in Anhui, USTC Silicon Valley has created a "high-yield field" for high-tech industries by creating a "test field" for scientific and technological system reform, attracting a large number of innovative teams and scientific and technological achievements to take root in this innovation valley, showing a vigorous scene of new quality productivity breeding and development.
"University of Science and Technology achievements" into the valley incubation high-end polyolefin will achieve domestic production
As a polymer material, polyolefin is widely used in many fields due to its excellent properties. From plastic tableware, crisper boxes, and trash cans, to chemicals, electronic appliances, etc...... Polyolefin materials play an indispensable role in both everyday life and industrial production. However, at present, the mainland still relies on imports for the R&D and production of high-end polyolefin elastomers. In the face of high technical barriers and the situation that the core technology is subject to foreign enterprises, domestic enterprises urgently need to break through the bottleneck and promote the localization process.
Hefei Zhongke Kele New Materials Co., Ltd., located in the Silicon Valley of the University of Science and Technology, is committed to innovation in this field. Founded by Chen Changle, a national second-level professor and chair professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, relying on his nearly 20 years of scientific research accumulation in the field of polyolefins and their catalysts, Zhongke Kele has made remarkable achievements in the development of high-end polyolefin catalysts and materials.
Since its establishment in August 2022, Zhongke Kele has rapidly started the process of technology industrialization through the "empowerment of the University of Science and Technology". With the first round of financing of 27 million yuan and a valuation of 100 million yuan, Zhongke Kele successfully completed the industrialization test, and carried out a pre-A round of financing in 2023, raising 300 million yuan, and the valuation increased to 1 billion yuan for the construction of an industrialization demonstration device. Huang Yukun, deputy general manager of the company, said: "The demand for high-end polyolefin materials in the fields of photovoltaics, new energy vehicles and electronic information has shown vigorous growth, and through independent research and development, Zhongke Kele has promoted the localization process of materials in these fields and enhanced the overall competitiveness. ”
In just two years, the team size has rapidly expanded from more than 10 people to nearly 200 people. Based on the original nickel-based catalyst technology, the company has developed a new set of E-POE process, which uses ethylene as a single raw material, cooperates with domestic additives and conventional polymerization equipment, and successfully prepares high-end POE products. "This technology not only greatly reduces the dependence on imported raw materials, but also significantly lowers the production cost of traditional processes," Huang said. At present, the company has launched a variety of high-end new materials covering polyolefin elastomers, cyclic olefin copolymers and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene to meet the urgent needs of the domestic market.
With the successful verification of technology and the release of new products, Zhongke Kele has gradually occupied a place in the market. E-POE products have been widely used in photovoltaic adhesive films and automotive toughening materials, accelerating the localization process of these industries. At present, the company is promoting the construction of a catalyst production base in Daguan District, Anqing City and a 10,000-ton E-POE material production line in Shandong Province, and a 100,000-ton E-POE production base in Anqing High-tech Zone. "We also plan to make further layouts in the Yangtze River Delta region, and promote the implementation of E-POE projects nationwide, fill the gap in the domestic market, and drive industry upgrading." Huang Yukun said.
In the process of promoting the development of enterprises, USTC Silicon Valley has provided key policy support and financial guarantee for Zhongke Kele. "We have obtained 1.5 million yuan of start-up capital through the special policy of 'high-level talent entrepreneurship start-up support', and we have also obtained an equity investment of 10 million yuan from the Silicon Valley Guidance Fund of the University of Science and Technology." Huang Yukun said that the R&D investment in the start-up period of the enterprise is very huge, and these policy supports are crucial to the rapid growth of the enterprise. In addition, USTC Silicon Valley also helped the company connect with photovoltaic industry chain enterprises in Anhui Province, and promoted the application verification of products in cutting-edge fields such as semiconductors and electronic information, providing assistance for Zhongke Kele to develop more market application scenarios.
Catalyst production base
HKUST professor entered the valley to start a business to break the foreign monopoly of "magnetorheology".
Like Zhongke Kele, Zhongke Qingbang Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd. is also a USTC empowerment project, and it is also located in the "Silicon Valley of HKUST".
Sun Shuaishuai, chairman and general manager of Zhongke Qingbang, is a native of Xiao County, Anhui Province, and has studied and worked in Australia, Japan and other countries. In 2020, Sun Shuaishuai resigned as an assistant professor at Tohoku University in Japan, returned to China, and joined USTC as a special professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Precision Mechanics and Precision Instruments of USTC. In Sun Shuaishuai's scientific research career, he has been deeply engaged in "magnetorheology", a high-tech technology that is relatively unfamiliar to ordinary people.
The so-called "magnetorheology" technology is generally used in automobile suspension, which can achieve better results than traditional suspension and make the car more stable. Therefore, the technology of "magnetorheology" is redefining the driving experience of automobiles, and the magnetorheological suspension system is also expected to occupy more positions in the domestic modification market and the front-end market. However, the technical barriers and industry entry barriers of magnetorheological suspension systems are very high, and the current global magnetorheological fluid manufacturers are only BWI Group, LORD Corporation, and Arus MRTech. "In terms of magnetorheological dampers, there are currently no suppliers of magnetorheological dampers applied to OEMs in China. High-performance dampers for high-end passenger cars are also monopolized by foreign countries. ”
At present, China is moving towards an automobile power, and the application of high-end magnetorheological technology will bring new impetus to China's automobile industry. To this end, in 2023, Sun Shuaishuai led the team of HKUST to establish Zhongke Qingbang to develop and produce high-performance magnetorheological fluid materials, magnetorheological automotive suspension systems and other products, and entered the "no man's land" of magnetorheological technology industrialization.
For more than a year, the new magnetorheological liquid developed by the Qingbang team has broken the monopoly of foreign technology and broken through the "stuck neck" problem of foreign magnetorheological technology application, "which can further promote the industrial application of high-end intelligent devices and equipment such as high-performance magnetorheological dampers and exoskeleton robots in China." Sun Shuaishuai said that at present, the company has established a relatively complete intellectual property system in the industrial application of magnetorheological technology, and has established a 7,000 square meter R & D and production site and a 600 acres of vehicle test site. In addition, the company has built a new magnetorheological liquid production line to meet commercial needs, and built a magnetorheological damper production line with an annual output of 500,000 pieces. ”
Sun Shuaishuai said that the reason why it was named "Zhongke Qingbang" is to take "standing in the sky and rejuvenating the country with science and technology" as its corporate mission and vision, and make every effort to realize the localization and application of magnetorheological technology-related products. In the initial stage of the company's ambitions, HKUST Silicon Valley has always given great support to the team to accelerate the industrialization process of research results. "After the company landed in the Silicon Valley of the University of Science and Technology, it successfully enjoyed the start-up capital of 1.5 million yuan of the first batch of high-level talent entrepreneurship support policies of the University of Science and Technology Silicon Valley, and also received a total of more than 5 million yuan from the Silicon Valley Industry Guidance Fund and financial support of the University of Science and Technology. In addition, HKUST Silicon Valley also dispatched specialists to our company to connect with corresponding demand resources for us. Sun Shuaishuai said that in the Silicon Valley of USTC, enterprises not only enjoy first-class landing services, but also gain a broad industrial development platform.
The magnetorheological suspension independently developed by Qingbang
Optimizing the Innovation Ecosystem "USTC Silicon Valley" is full of innovation vitality
Both Qingbang and Kele are the latest achievements of the Silicon Valley of HKUST in carrying out precise mining of source technology and tracking docking transformation.
In order to promote USTC's "empowerment + transfer + agreed income" model, USTC Silicon Valley provides early start-up services for empowerment projects, such as docking policies, venues, linking public service platforms, and connecting upstream and downstream industrial chains and supply chains. At present, 90% of the USTC empowerment projects, and a total of 36 companies have landed in USTC Silicon Valley. In addition to "nuggets" from USTC, USTC Silicon Valley also empowers each other with science centers, large scientific installations, high-level R&D institutions, and interdisciplinary research platforms to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements to "lay eggs along the way". And gradually penetrate into universities and institutes at home and abroad to promote the transformation of excellent scientific research achievements into the valley.
In order to optimize the innovation ecology and accelerate the transformation of achievements, HKUST Silicon Valley has established a government-guided and market-led working mechanism to improve the efficiency of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and regarded science and technology intermediary service institutions and technology managers as the "new quality subjects" to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productivity, and set up 9 innovation centers at home and abroad in Silicon Valley of United States and Tokyo of Japan, exploring the "local registration, remote incubation" attraction model, and opening up the circulation channels of talents, projects and technologies at home and abroad.
HKUST Silicon Valley has also built a full-service support system, aiming at the three major problems of "finding people, finding money, and finding scenes" for science and technology enterprises, and building a comprehensive support system of "venue + capital + policy + service". In addition, we will create a space for the integration of elements of free exchange, rely on global partners and expand innovation units, contact leading enterprises in the industrial chain and innovation platforms to take the lead in the pilot construction of innovation consortiums, focus on building a number of innovation consortiums with enterprises and universities as the main body, promote the integration of the whole chain of innovation such as scientific and technological research, achievement transformation, business incubation, and product iteration, and make every effort to build a "Valley of Innovation" that is highly dynamic, leading the future and world-renowned.
As of the end of September 2024, the Silicon Valley area of HKUST has attracted 1,725 new technology-based enterprises. It has gathered 216 funds of various types, with a total scale of more than 240 billion yuan.
Dawan News reporter Xiang Lei
Edited by Zhang Dawei
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