China Chemical Industry News SFTB Assists the Application Practice of Distillation Technology in the Chemical Industry

At the recent 2026 Complex Distillation Technology and Distillation Energy-saving Process and Equipment Seminar, experts present at the conference pointed out that distillation, as a widely applied mass transfer separation technology, its technological breakthroughs and innovations are becoming the key path to addressing the dual pressures of insufficient supply of high-end products in the chemical industry and energy conservation and carbon reduction.

Li Qunsheng explained that ultra-pure electronic chemicals usually need to be at least 99.999% pure, with impurities kept at ridiculously tiny levels (parts per trillion). The hard part is that by the time you reach that stage, all the easy-to-remove impurities are already gone. What's left are substances that look and behave almost exactly like the main chemical you're trying to purify. Every time you push the purity one notch higher, the technical difficulty jumps up exponentially. Because of this, Li called for stronger teamwork between industry and universities to crack the key purification problems, so China can make its own electronic chemicals with reliable technology and equipment.

Wang Tianyu, founder of Huagong 707 and the Haichuan chemical forum, said the chemical industry is rapidly shifting toward smarter, lower-carbon, and higher-end production. Distillation — the core separation method — handles more than 90% of all separation tasks in the industry. Breakthroughs here, he said, matter hugely for hitting climate targets, replacing imports of high-end chemicals, and making the whole industry more efficient and profitable.

Huang Qiancheng, deputy chief engineer at a research and promotion center for tower packing and equipment, pointed out that separating these chemicals is tough and uses a ton of energy. A pressure-swing distillation method that saves energy can do the job much more efficiently. Building on that approach, his team went further and developed hybrid technologies — like combining distillation with special membrane filters, or integrating heat pumps — which expand the range of applications and also bring running costs down. He also shared the team's work on purifying wet chemicals like electronic-grade isopropyl alcohol and NMP. The ultra-clean equipment they've designed, such as precision-welded polished liquid distributors and matching high-purity PFA materials, can strictly control metal ions and tiny particles, meeting the demanding requirements of electronic-grade products.

High-purity separation almost always means high energy use, and heat pump technology is emerging as a key way to cut carbon emissions from distillation systems. On this front, equipment companies are providing real-world examples. Yuan Shengyong, chief engineer at SFTB, explained that chemical plants produce a huge amount of low-grade waste heat between 40°C and 100°C. Normally, this heat is simply vented, which wastes energy and pollutes thermally. This company has developed a centrifugal heat pump compressor that can capture that low-temperature waste heat from the top of a distillation tower, upgrade it, and then use it to heat the bottom of the tower. Yuan gave an example: “One C4 processing company had multiple distillation towers. Their original process used air cooling, which wasted a massive amount of heat. After installing our centrifugal heat pump compressors, they saved about 80 million yuan a year in operating costs, cut standard coal use by roughly 35,000 tonnes, and reduced CO₂ emissions by around 90,000 tonnes.”

(The above pictures are of the meeting venue.)

From the 2024 Suizhou Symposium to this current Wuhan event, we have jointly witnessed the vigorous development of the distillation industry. During this period, Sanfeng Turbine has also achieved steady progress and rapid growth. A series of heat pump compressors and heat pump distillation unit products have been successfully verified and put into practical application one after another. In the future, we will continue to walk hand in hand with our customers, continuously support industry technical exchange activities, and contribute more to promoting the high-quality development of the distillation industry.