Zhou Nannan, Chief Expert at the Institute of Chemical Engineering, has been appointed a Special-Class Expert by the China Petroleum and Chemical Exploration & Design Association.

Recently, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Survey and Design Association officially issued the “Notice on Appointing Li Yuchun, Li Hao, and 27 Other Individuals as Special‑Grade Experts.” Zhou Nannan, Chief Technical Expert, Chief Engineer, and Deputy General Manager of the Chemical Engineering Institute, stood out among numerous applicants thanks to his outstanding academic accomplishments, extensive engineering achievements, and profound industry influence, earning the title of Special‑Grade Expert (Survey and Design Master Level) from the Association. This prestigious honor not only represents the highest recognition of his professional expertise but also marks a historic leap in the Institute’s efforts to cultivate top‑tier technical talent, firmly establishing it among the elite ranks of the national team in the field of petroleum and chemical survey and design.

This selection was conducted through member‑company nominations, rigorous evaluation by the Association’s Expert Committee, and approval at the Chairpersons’ Working Meeting. Nationwide, only 27 individuals were honored, all of whom are leading technical talents from former ministry‑affiliated large research institutes and industry‑leading engineering design firms in the petrochemical sector. Comrade Zhou Nannan’s election marks a breakthrough for the Chemical Research Institute—formerly a provincial institute—in attaining the Association’s highest‑level expert honor, underscoring the Institute’s commitment to long‑termism, its steadfast strategic vision, and its recent achievements in building up deep technical expertise, cultivating talent, and establishing an innovative institutional framework.

Zhou Nannan graduated from Zhejiang University with a degree in Organic Chemical Engineering. He is a senior engineer and currently serves as the Chief Engineer, Deputy General Manager, Chief Technical Expert, and Director of the Technical Committee at the Institute of Chemical Engineering. With more than thirty years of dedicated experience in chemical engineering design, he has led or participated in over one hundred engineering consulting, surveying, design, and EPC projects, spanning cutting-edge fields such as petrochemicals, biochemicals, fine chemicals, and new‑energy materials. He has also undertaken numerous national and provincial key scientific‑technological research projects, successfully overcoming a series of engineering challenges in areas including biofermentation, green hydrogen energy, and high‑end solvents. Through deep collaborations with top universities such as Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Tianjin University, he has facilitated the industrialization of multiple advanced technological achievements. He is a pragmatic, leading expert in the field of chemical engineering in China.

Its flagship demonstration projects have repeatedly set “China’s first” and “world’s best” records: Suzhou Suzhen Bioengineering Co., Ltd.’s 50,000‑ton‑per‑year biomass‑based differentiated fiber project represents China’s first industrial-scale fermentation‑based production facility for 1,3‑propanediol. Huizhou Zhongchuang Chemical Co., Ltd.’s 100,000‑ton‑per‑year sec‑butyl acetate integrated plant is the world’s first industrial unit of comparable scale. Hunan Xiangjiang Kansai Coatings (Changsha) Co., Ltd.’s relocation and new‑build project, with an annual capacity of 180,000 tons of coatings and 60,000 tons of resins, has established the largest domestic production base for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automotive paints. Meanwhile, Hunan Wujiang High‑Tech Materials Co., Ltd.’s high‑resolution photosensitive dry film project for printed circuit boards has set a national benchmark as the largest domestically scaled intelligent manufacturing facility for such products. Over the past three years, the company has spearheaded several major hydrogen‑energy technology initiatives at the China Energy Engineering Group level, focusing on integrated green hydrogen, ammonia, and alcohol technologies and delivering cutting‑edge engineering solutions to support the emerging energy sector.

Thanks to his outstanding technical contributions, Zhou Nannan has successively been awarded one First Prize for National Outstanding Engineering Survey and Design from the China Exploration and Design Association, one Overseas Outstanding Design Award and five Outstanding Engineering Design Awards from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Exploration and Design Association, as well as eight provincial-level awards for excellent design and consulting achievements. He holds five invention patents, four utility‑model patents, and one proprietary technology, has participated in the drafting of multiple standards, and has published numerous papers in core academic journals. Notably, the high‑resolution photosensitive dry film project for circuit boards developed under his leadership at Hunan Wujiang High‑Tech was honored with the First Prize of the China Exploration and Design Association in 2025—the highest accolade in the national engineering survey and design sector. His appointment as a top‑tier industry expert further complements this “national award‑winning project,” fostering a virtuous cycle in which leading talent spearheads premier projects, while such flagship initiatives, in turn, propel the professional growth of experts, thereby reinforcing the Chemical Research Institute’s position as a provincial leader among chemical engineering design institutes.

As a provincial-level chemical and pharmaceutical design institute, the Chemical Engineering Institute boasts an array of innovation platforms, including the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology’s “Provincial Enterprise Technology Center,” the Provincial Specialized, Sophisticated, Distinctive, and Novel Enterprise designation, the Provincial Department of Education’s “Postgraduate Joint Training Base” for integrating science and education, the Provincial Department of Science and Technology’s “Integrated Electro‑Hydrogen‑Ammonia‑Alcohol Technology Platform in the Emerging Energy Sector,” the Changsha Municipal Science and Technology Bureau’s “Municipal Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials Technology Innovation Center,” and the Changsha Municipal Development and Reform Commission’s “Municipal Enterprise Technology Center.” The Institute has undertaken extensive technical services for numerous chemical engineering projects both within and beyond the province. Throughout the chemical project design process, the Institute adheres to the guiding principles of “professionalism, focus, and innovation; quality, efficiency, and excellence,” while upholding the core tenets of “safety‑first design, green design as the central philosophy, innovative design as the key competitive edge, and intelligent design as the direction of future development.” It has amassed substantial engineering expertise in areas such as the reliability, applicability, and safety of process flows, as well as the rationality, advanced nature, and comparative advantages of various process technology pathways. Furthermore, the Institute has accumulated a wealth of proven project outcomes and distinctive proprietary technologies in process package design and the scale‑up of laboratory‑scale equipment, continuously driving the industry toward intrinsic safety and high‑quality, sustainable development.