Recently, the 2024 Beijing Science and Technology Awards Conference was held, and the Beijing Science and Technology Awards were officially announced. This year, a total of 193 scientific and technological innovation achievements were awarded, including 29 first prizes for science and technology progress awards, and the special prize has been absent for two consecutive years. Three innovative achievements of MCC Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as "CERI") were on the list, all of which won first prizes of the Science and Technology Progress Award, accounting for more than 10%! This has set a record in the history of CERI's total number of awards, number of first prizes and highest award level for leading projects in a single selection of Beijing Science and Technology Award.

With its industry-leading technical R&D strength, CERI has achieved innovative achievements that stand out in the industry. The 3 first prizes of the Science and Technology Progress Award are: the innovative achievement of "Development and Application of Ultra-thick Slab Continuous Casting Technology" led by CERI, jointly completed with Northeastern University, Xingcheng Special Steel Works, Xiangtan Steel, NISCO and CISRI in the form of industry-university-research-application cooperation; the innovative achievement of "Key Technologies and Applications for Pollution Reduction and Collaborative Carbon Reduction in the Iron and Steel Industry" led by the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and participated by CERI; the innovative achievement of "Key Technologies and Equipment for Ultra-clean Treatment of Recycled Water and Preparation of Electronic Grade Ultrapure Water" led by Tsinghua University and participated in by CERI. Among them, the "Development and Application of Ultra-thick Slab Continuous Casting Technology" project won the award. This was the first time that CERI won the first prize of Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award in a leading role. 

The Beijing Science and Technology Award is a provincial science and technology award established by the People's Government of Beijing Municipality. It brings together many top domestic and foreign universities, top enterprises in various fields at home and abroad, scientific research institutes in various industries, medical institutions, etc. to participate in the evaluation. It involves a wide range of industries and is regarded as an authoritative award in the field of science and technology. The first prize winning project was selected after preliminary review by the Municipal Science and Technology Award Professional Review Group, re-examination by the Review Committee, and approval by the Award Committee. It finally stood out among 753 participating projects and won unanimous praise from dozens of the most influential experts and scholars in various fields. 

CERI 2024 First Prize of Beijing Science and Technology Progress Award 

Development and Application of Ultra-thick Slab Continuous Casting Technology 

High-performance ultra-thick plates (thickness ≥ 100 mm) are the core materials for major national projects such as offshore platforms, large hydropower, and pressure vessels. Their independent production is crucial to ensuring national strategic security. The traditional die casting process is difficult to meet the stringent requirements of high-end equipment due to problems such as low efficiency and uneven quality. 

CERI, together with Northeastern University, Xingcheng Special Steel Works and other industry-university-research institutions, has innovatively proposed a new route for efficient production of ultra-thick plates by straight arc ultra-thick slab continuous casting. In response to the major problems such as yield stress and impact load surge, segregation and crack intensification caused by thickening of the billet section, a key technology for efficient continuous casting of ultra-thick slabs with high homogeneous solidification and low crack risk was first developed; core equipment for straight-arc ultra-thick slab continuous casting was developed, such as high-efficiency heat transfer mold, 3H bending/straightening section, SLR large reduction fan-shaped section, and high-life gradient curvature convex roll, the world's first set of straight-arc ultra-thick slab caster with a thickness of ≥450 mm was built and put into production, and large-scale promotion and application was completed; replacing die casting and other methods are adopted to achieve the production of high-end ultra-thick plates in all categories such as marine engineering and energy, and the products have been applied to more than 30 national projects and major equipment construction and manufacturing such as Baihetan Hydropower Station, Haiji No.2, Winter Olympics Speed Skating Gymnasium, etc., and supplied to key "Belt and Road" projects such as Russia's AGPP and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Tower, opening up a new process for efficient and high-quality production of high-end ultra-thick plates. 

The project results have significantly improved China's manufacturing support capabilities for key metal materials and high-end equipment, and the project has obtained 76 authorized invention patents. 16 national and group standards have been formulated, 18 software copyrights have been registered, and 2 academic monographs have been published. The project was selected into the "Science and Technology Innovation China" Leading Technology List, the Manufacturing Single Champion of MIIT, etc. The project team won the "National Worker Pioneer" and "National Advanced Worker", etc., promoting my country's metallurgical technology to achieve major original innovation breakthroughs. 

Key Technologies and Applications of Pollution Reduction and Collaborative Carbon Reduction in the Iron and Steel Industry 

With the support of projects such as the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Institute of Process Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with HBIS Group Co., Ltd., University of Science and Technology Beijing, CERI and other industry-university-research teams, has developed a key technology for pollution reduction and coordinated carbon reduction in the iron and steel industry, namely "flue gas circulation reduction and efficiency improvement - coal gas recovery, purification and utilization - temperature range matching low-carbon pollution control", to address the problems of large number of flue gas points, serious coal gas dissipation and high energy consumption of purification facilities in the long-process production process of steel, and built a pollution and carbon reduction system solution covering sintering, pellet, coke oven, blast furnace and other processes. 

As one of the main completion units, CERI has developed two core technologies and built a technology cluster with independent intellectual property rights. One is the full recovery system of blast furnace top equalizing coal gas, which achieves 100% coal gas recovery rate, particulate matter concentration less than 5 mg/m³, and equalizing coal gas recovery time of 11-15 s, significantly lower than the conventional level; the other is the energy-saving and consumption-reducing high blast temperature rotary cutting top-fired hot stove. The wind temperature is 20-50°C higher than that of the traditional process, and NOx emissions can be reduced to below 25 mg/m³. 

The project has been promoted in more than 40 steel companies such as HBIS Tangsteel New Area, Hansteel, and Chengde Iron and Steel Group, and the technical application effect is remarkable. At the same time, it was selected into the energy conservation and carbon reduction catalogue of MIIT and one of China's Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Ecological Environment in 2022. With the iteration of technologies such as hydrogen-based direct reduction and full-process waste heat recovery, it is expected that by 2030, the industry's carbon intensity will be reduced by 40%, providing a "Chinese solution" for the global green transformation of steel. 

Key Technologies and Equipment for Ultra-clean Treatment of Recycled Water and Preparation of Electronic Grade Ultrapure Water 

Electronic grade ultrapure water is a basic material for high-tech industries such as semiconductors and LCD panel manufacturing. Its water quality requirements are strict and the demand is large. In northern water-stressed cities such as Beijing, recycled water has become an important source of water for electronic grade ultrapure water preparation, but trace amounts of difficult-to-treat small molecular organic matter in it have led to water quality risks. In addition, the high-end water treatment materials and equipment required for electronic grade ultrapure water preparation have long been monopolized by foreign countries, which seriously restricts the independent development of China's electronic industry. 

In response to the above problems, Tsinghua University took the lead and jointly completed the "Key Technologies and Equipment for Ultra-clean Treatment of Complex Water Sources and Preparation of Electronic Grade Ultrapure Water" project with CERI, CESE2, Vontron Technology and other companies. 

The project focuses on the technical research route of "breakthrough in ultra-clean treatment principle, domestic substitution of high-end equipment, and intelligent regulation of process systems", successfully solving the international problem of ultra-clean treatment of recycled water and breaking through the key technology of electronic grade ultrapure water preparation. Through the promotion and application of relevant technological achievements, the project has achieved independent production of core materials and equipment such as high-end reverse osmosis membranes, ultraviolet light sources and polishing resins. 

The results of this project have been widely used in hundreds of industrial ultrapure water preparation projects in Beijing, Shanghai and other provinces (cities), which have effectively guaranteed the independent production of advanced process chips for important enterprises in China, brought significant economic, social and environmental benefits, and have broad development prospects. As an important component of the project, CERI has participated in the research and development of many technologies such as vacuum ultraviolet oxidation-resin adsorption synergistic ultra-clean treatment technology and polishing resin preparation.