USD 42 million "nest" built, 22 projects "break through" — Dongying Port High-end Chemical Pilot Base bridges the "last mile" to industrialization

In May 2026, the Dongying Port Pilot Base received a special group of visitors — a delegation from Russia''s Sibur conducted an on-site inspection and gave high recognition to the base''s rubber and polyester pilot hardware conditions. They expressed a clear intention for long-term cooperation and plan to establish a joint laboratory. This marks a vivid milestone in the Dongying Port Pilot Base''s entry onto the international stage and demonstrates its success in bridging the full "R&D — Pilot — Industrialization" chain in the petrochemical industry.

As the only provincial-level innovation and entrepreneurship platform in Shandong''s high-end petrochemical sector, the Dongying Port Pilot Base is operated by Shandong Industrial Technology Research Institute and has built an integrated "government-industry-academia-research-finance-service-use" pilot innovation and transformation platform. With a cumulative investment of approximately USD 42 million, the base has established standardized pilot facilities including a 5,643 sqm R&D building, a 5,000 sqm testing building, a 6,250 sqm pilot workshop, and a 750 sqm Class A hazardous chemical warehouse. It is equipped with China''s only 100 kg/hour high-end polyester continuous pilot device and a rare-earth cis-polybutadiene rubber dedicated pilot device, capable of full-process pilot verification for advanced carbon materials, high-end polyesters, and specialty rubbers. The base has successfully been recognized as a provincial-level new R&D institution and academician workstation, and has fully completed the annual performance assessment targets for these platforms.

At the Dongying Port Pilot Base pilot workshop, production-scale testing of rare-earth cis-polybutadiene rubber is currently underway. This represents the "critical station" where chemical technologies transition from laboratory to production line.

The standardized pilot facilities, built with an investment of approximately USD 42 million, are now fully operational. Researchers work day and night in the 5,643 sqm R&D building; product performance is repeatedly verified in the 5,000 sqm testing building; and in the 6,250 sqm pilot workshop, technologies move from "paper" to "production line." The base''s unique 100 kg/hour high-end polyester continuous pilot device enables pilot testing of PCT, PCTG, PETG and other polyester products, prioritizing high-value-added, high-technical-difficulty polyester products not yet industrialized in China. The rare-earth cis-polybutadiene rubber pilot device targets the essential rubber type for high-performance green tires, focusing on solving the transmission, mass transfer, and heat transfer challenges of high-viscosity rubber solutions during polymerization.

Meanwhile, the base''s Phase II planning is advancing in an orderly manner. The Phase II project, planned on 100 mu (approx. 6.67 hectares) of land with a total investment of USD 77 million, has completed preliminary planning and commissioned the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation to prepare project planning and feasibility study reports. Phase II will address utility infrastructure gaps and enable simultaneous parallel testing of multiple projects, resolving the current constraint of sequential testing due to limited space.

The value of the pilot base is ultimately reflected in its commercialization results. A number of technologies once monopolized by foreign countries have completed pilot testing, formed process packages, and are approaching industrialization.

Breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technologies are being achieved frequently. High-end rare-earth cis-polybutadiene rubber, PETG, and high-strength high-modulus pitch-based carbon fiber have all completed pilot testing. Among these, high-end rare-earth cis-polybutadiene rubber and PETG have been entrusted to Zhejiang Tianzheng Design Institute to complete process package development and are now ready for technology transfer and industrialization. These breakthroughs are of significant importance to the technological advancement of China''s synthetic rubber and tire industries. Heavy oil supercritical extraction technology has also achieved low-carbon and efficiency-enhancing innovations, providing a new path for green transformation of the petrochemical industry.

Import substitution projects have achieved large-scale production. Nuoer New Materials'' 1,000 tons/year Rhodococcus whole-cell catalyst for acrylamide and Haike Yiwei New Materials'' high-end new energy carbon materials project have been successfully industrialized, filling domestic technological gaps in high-end catalysis and new energy carbon materials with significant economic and social benefits.

The base has a robust pipeline of frontier projects, having accumulated over 10 future new materials projects that fill domestic gaps, including nylon microspheres, styrene-butadiene rubber, and PEF. The base is also advancing a "petrochemical + biomedicine" cross-sector track, collaborating with Shandong First Medical University and Shenchuan Biotechnology to advance PMO monomer pilot testing for nucleic acid drugs, establishing a provincial-level demonstration platform for extending petrochemical raw materials to pharmaceutical intermediates.

The pilot base is not only a technology validation platform but also an open sharing hub. From Russia''s Sibur to leading domestic enterprises, from universities and research institutes to investment institutions, a collaborative innovation ecosystem is rapidly taking shape here.

External cooperation is opening new possibilities. The base has reached cooperation intentions with multiple research institutes and enterprises: a preliminary cooperation intention with the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for polyester pilot services; coordination with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics for the nylon microsphere pilot project, with preliminary technical feasibility approval; and a strategic cooperation agreement with Dongying Fenghua Intelligent Technology for "AI + research," promoting deep integration of artificial intelligence with advanced chemical materials research.

Open sharing services serve enterprises within and outside the province. Leveraging its unique polyester and rubber pilot devices, the base has provided product verification, process development, and equipment leasing services to companies including Wankai New Materials, China Resources New Materials, and Fuhai Research Institute, generating revenue of USD 305,000, a 212% year-over-year increase. The base has also signed an agreement with PilotPass (Shanghai) Technology to build an integrated online-offline digital pilot service ecosystem, broadening revenue channels through technical services and equipment leasing. The Shandong High-end Petrochemical Innovation Community has connected more than 10 universities and research institutes including China University of Petroleum and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, encompassing 42 innovation entities.

Industry-academia-research collaboration continues to deepen. The pilot base has attracted over 40 high-end talents including Academician Xu Chunming, Academician Zhuang Qingfa, and Russian academicians, forming a R&D team of over 110 people. Following the model of "frontier laboratories — pilot base — specialized park-in-park," the base is building a full-chain, full-factor, fully connected commercialization and incubation platform for scientific achievements. Two innovative development mechanisms have been explored: "enterprises propose challenges, the community accepts the challenge, joint R&D, and pilot-scale transformation within the cluster" and "technology introduction, pilot verification, and cluster-based transformation." The base has implemented 22 breakthrough innovative pilot projects and newly authorized 682 invention patents.

Moving forward, the Dongying Port Pilot Base is aiming for higher goals: streamlining operational management mechanisms to enhance market-oriented operational efficiency; improving the diversified investment and financing system by building a "government subsidies + state-owned capital + venture capital + project revenue reinvestment" investment model; deepening internal and external industrial cooperation; fully promoting the establishment of a joint laboratory with Russia''s Sibur; and accelerating the phased pilot testing of reserve projects including nylon microspheres and styrene-butadiene rubber.

From "laboratory" to "production line," from "technological breakthrough" to "industrial rise," the Dongying Port Pilot Base is leveraging its platform power to bridge the "last mile" of the innovation chain, continuously cultivating three emerging industrial clusters — high-end chemicals, advanced carbon materials, and biomedicine — and using pilot base development to promote high-quality transformation of the petrochemical industry in Dongying Port Economic Development Zone and cultivate new quality productive forces.