The Institute of Chemical Engineering has been awarded the highest national-level prize in China’s engineering surveying and design industry for 2025.

On November 24, the China Exploration and Design Association announced the winners of the 2025 National Outstanding Engineering Exploration and Design Awards. The chemical engineering institute’s project, “High-Resolution Photosensitive Dry Film for Circuit Boards—Hunan Wujiang High-Tech Materials Co., Ltd.,” was honored with the First Prize in the “Petroleum and Chemical Industry Engineering Design” category—the highest national award in China’s engineering exploration and design industry. This achievement represents a high-quality outcome of the chemical engineering institute’s ongoing commitment to the development philosophy of “professionalism, focus, innovation, efficiency, quality, and excellence,” and underscores the institute’s strong technical capabilities in the field of advanced materials engineering design.

The National Award for Outstanding Engineering Survey and Design is the highest national honor, aimed at promoting technological advancement in the engineering survey and design industry. This award covers multiple fields, including outstanding engineering surveys and outstanding engineering designs. The selection process features a broad scope, high technical standards, and strong representativeness. Innovativeness, economic benefits, and social benefits achieved during project implementation are all incorporated into the evaluation criteria. In the 2025 National Award for Outstanding Engineering Survey and Design, only nine projects received the First Prize in the category of “Petroleum and Chemical Industry Engineering Design.” This project has previously won the First Prize for Outstanding Engineering Consulting Achievements in Hunan Province in 2020 and the First Prize for Outstanding Engineering Survey and Design Industrial Projects in Hunan Province in 2023. It stands as a model project among the many excellent projects and high-quality engineering works produced by the Institute of Chemical Engineering.

The high-resolution photosensitive dry film used for printed circuit boards is a photosensitive thin film that serves as an essential consumable material in the fabrication of printed circuit boards (PCBs). It is widely employed in the microelectronics industry and the PCB manufacturing sector, serving numerous manufacturers across various fields—including electronics, information technology, telecommunications, medical devices, aerospace, and more. Globally, only a handful of countries have fully mastered this technology. Developed nations such as the United States and Japan have long maintained a monopoly on photosensitive dry film technology. For many years, China has been highly dependent on DuPont and Toshiba’s photosensitive dry film products. This project has successfully broken through the foreign monopoly on advanced dry film production technology, making it of significant practical importance to the development of China’s photoresist materials industry.

The high-resolution photosensitive dry film project for printed circuit boards undertaken by Hunan Wujiang High-Tech Materials Co., Ltd. has a planned production capacity of 297.6 million square meters per year of high-resolution photosensitive dry films for PCBs. The project is equipped with control systems such as DCS, SIS, and GDS, features an MES system, and incorporates BIM and 3D modeling. Upon completion, this project will become the largest domestic production base for photosensitive dry films, with performance indicators reaching domestically leading and internationally advanced levels: (1) It is one of the 35 key national projects receiving priority support under the “bottleneck” technology initiative, marking the first time that domestically produced dry films have achieved large-scale production. (2) The project has replaced over 40% of imported products, achieving a 40% reduction in labor costs through automation and an 18% decrease in energy consumption. (3) The company has become a major supplier in both the domestic and international PCB dry film markets, providing products and services to more than 80% of China’s listed PCB companies as well as numerous global top-ten PCB manufacturers. (4) The RTO system achieves VOC emission reductions of over 98%, and the wastewater recycling rate reaches 80%; the project has also been certified as a provincial-level green factory. Overall, the project’s technological level and comprehensive benefits are among the best in the domestic industry at the same time, making it a benchmark project for photosensitive dry films used in printed circuit boards in China.

During the project design phase, the technical team from the Institute of Chemical Engineering adheres to the following principles: "safety design as the top priority, green design as the core philosophy, innovative design as the key competitive edge, and intelligent design as the direction for future development." Guided by technology, quality, schedule, and comprehensive services, the team works closely with the project investors and meticulously designs the project, laying a solid foundation for the construction of high-quality engineering projects. In this project’s design, we have fully embraced the concept of innovation. Through thorough research and repeated verification of various design options, we have successfully addressed numerous challenging issues—including scale-up design, equipment layout, architecture, structural engineering, HVAC, and fire protection—ultimately arriving at an economically viable design solution that not only meets production requirements and complies with relevant national standards and regulations but also minimizes investment and shortens the construction period.

As a Class-A design institute in the chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries, a specialized, sophisticated, and innovative enterprise at the provincial level, and a joint graduate training base for industry-education integration at the provincial level, the Institute of Chemical Engineering has been deeply engaged in the fields of chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, construction, and municipal engineering for over six decades. Its qualifications and credentials rank among the leading ones within both national and provincial-level institutes and departments, boasting strong and time-honored technical expertise and a profound technological foundation. Its technologies are notably “specialized, sophisticated, and innovative,” distinctly characterized and highly advantageous. The Institute holds three key technology innovation platforms: the “Provincial Enterprise Technology Center” designated by the Hunan Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the “Municipal Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials Technology Innovation Center” established by the Changsha Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, and the “Municipal Enterprise Technology Center” accredited by the Changsha Municipal Development and Reform Commission. We are confident that, under the guidance of the grand 865 strategy of China Energy Engineering Group Hunan Institute, the Institute of Chemical Engineering will continue to deepen its expertise in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, deliver even more innovative and high-quality projects, and wholeheartedly write a new chapter for the Institute—achieving industry leadership and becoming a first-class institution domestically!