Introduction
In 1999, East China University of Science and Technology approved the construction of the Research Institute of Resource Process. In 2007, the Ministry of Education approved the construction of the Engineering Research Center for Resource Process of the Ministry of Education. In 2009, the Ministry of Science and Technology approved the construction of the National Research Center for Salt Lake Resource Comprehensive Utilization Engineering Technology. It is a national engineering technical research center that first engages in the study of inorganic mineral resource comprehensive utilization in China, as well as an important research base for brine resource comprehensive utilization.
Research Direction
The engineering center focuses on national needs for the green and efficient development of inorganic and strategic mineral resources, especially salt lake potassium, lithium, and bromine, as well as the reclamation and utilization of high-COD and high-salt-content wastewater in process industries and bulk solid waste, serves industries and local economic construction, and systematically carries out engineering technology research and development of fundamental, material, crucial, and common technical difficulties of featured industrial chains with efficient and cyclic resource utilization through multiple paths, such as independent research and development, international cooperation, industry-academy combination, etc.
The center's construction focuses on five directions:
Advanced separation technology for the system of complicated substances of brine: The center systematically researches the theories of separation engineering and computational fluid mechanics, develops advanced adsorption stripping materials and devices, reaction crystallization theories and devices, advanced extraction theories and devices, flotation separation technology, hydraulic cyclone separation technology, and other units' core technology. It systematically develops advanced technology and devices to separate potassium, lithium, boron, and bromine.
Industrial wastewater and solid waste reclamation technology: The center systematically researches harmless gelatinization, filling, and recovery of tailings during the process of the strategic development of potassium and lithium, the technology of transformation, consumption, and utilization of typical industrial waste, such as bischofite, spodumene, alunite tailings, etc., the technology of the gradient utilization and recycling of used lithium-ion batteries, high-salt-content and high-COD industrial wastewater treatment, and valuable element reclamation.
Inorganic functional material preparation and material chemistry: The center systematically researches the preparation technology of battery materials, new adsorption materials, membrane separation materials, high-purity magnesite, electrode graphite, inorganic whiskers, flame-resistant materials, and other high-value-added, fine, and inorganic functional materials, as well as theories of material chemistry.
Light metal electrochemical preparation and molten salt chemistry: The center systematically researches the theories of high-temperature electrochemistry and molten salt energy storage technology and materials, develops large-current, low-energy-consumption, and near-zero-emission electrolytic preparation technology to produce metal lithium, nuclear-grade natrium, lithium alloy, etc., and develops green light metal electrochemical metallurgical processes.
Engineering amplification and technical transfer: The center establishes multiple pilot testing bases, cooperates with engineering design companies, carries out process simulation, equipment amplification, technical integration, and engineering design for unit manipulation and technique procedures during the process of resource development and utilization, finally realizes technical transfer and industrialized applications, transforms the achievements of scientific research to actual industrial productivity, improve enterprises' technical level and comprehensive benefit, and practically es the scientific and technological progress in the field of resource development in China.
Research Team
The center gathers a high-level scientific research team with a reasonable academic structure, active academic thinking, a strong cohesive force of the team, an innovative spirit, and a combination of elderly, middle-aged, and young researchers. At present, the team has 8 doctoral supervisors, 15 postgraduate supervisors, 17 members with a doctoral degree, and nearly 100 members who are doctoral students or postgraduates. The center has researchers whose professional structures and educational backgrounds are mainly distributed in the fields of chemical engineering, environment, energy, metallurgy, etc., with a considerable academic influence, forming a first-class team of resource process engineering-oriented technical innovation and development and system integration, as well as the capacity for continuous innovation and sustainable development, and ing the technical progress of the resource (salt lake) treatment industry.
Research Platform
The center constructed experiment platforms for reaction crystallization thermodynamics and kinematics, light metal preparation through molten salt electrolysis, adsorption material preparation and synthesis, industrial wastewater treatment and reclamation, wastewater biotreatment, membrane-function material preparation, engineering fluid mechanics, electrochemical analysis and testing, etc., as well as 1 high-performance computing service platform.
At present, the center has more than 60 large-scale analytical instruments and devices, including an automatic and quantitative mineral liberation analyzer (MLA, 200,000 times), a volume three-dimensional velocity field tester (V3V), an inductive coupling plasma atom emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), an online particle characterization system (Pixact PCM), a solid surface zeta potential tester, a high-temperature rotational rheometer (EC-Twist 502), an X-ray fluorescence spectrophotometer (XRF), a high-precision magnetic suspension balance (Rubotherm), a scanning electron microscope (SEM, Quanta 250), a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry chromatograph, a high-pressure liquid-phase chromatograph, a Malvern granularity analyzer, a comprehensive thermal analyzer, a dual-monitor ion chromatograph, a full-automatic laboratory synthesis reactor (LabMax), a four-interval full-automatic parallel thermodynamic parameter tester, and other large-scale analytical instruments. The supercomputing cluster platform has 10 CPU nodes, 3 GPUs, and 12 sets of commercial computing software, covering chemical engineering process simulation, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, computation of molecular dynamics, multi-physical-field coupling simulation, deep learning, and other fields. The center's condition for experimental research can totally reach a world-leading level, and it is jointly and highly recognized by experts from China, America, Germany, Canada, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Chile, Thailand, etc.
The center established pilot testing bases in many large-scale and leading enterprises, including Qinghai Yanhu Industry Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Group Co., Ltd., Yunnan Yuntianhua Co., Ltd., Lomon Billions Xiangyang Lithium Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Salt Industry Group Co., Ltd., the Pilot Testing Base of Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., and Petro China Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, covering national strategic resources, such as potassium, lithium, titanium, bromine, phosphorus, shale gas, etc., and the field of seawater desalination, which establish a bridge of pilot testing for the industrialized application of laboratory technology.
Scientific and Technological Achievements
The center focuses on key technical problems in the industry, depends on various projects at various levels to carry out research in depth, develops key techniques of the system through engineering implementation and verification, and applies these techniques in important regions. Now it has acquired a series of scientific and technological achievements with independent intellectual property rights. The center continuously es industrial development and technical progress. Some of its key techniques play a supportive and guiding role in the development of the industry and reach a world-leading level, contributing to significant social and economic benefits.
The center has undertaken nearly 200 national, provincial, university-level projects and projects entrusted by enterprises in the field of strategic mineral resource development and comprehensive utilization and other fields, including the National Key Research and Development Program of China, key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Science and Technology Support Program, etc. It has applied or authorized nearly 200 patent techniques at a world-leading level, published more than 500 high-level research papers in SCI, EI, etc., and accumulated rich experiences in research and development.
The center has made abundant academic achievements in terms of scientific research, technological development, achievement transformation, etc., won 2 Second Prizes of National Scientific and Technological Progress Awards, 2 First Prizes of Scientific and Technological Progress of Shanghai, 1 First Prize of Scientific and Technological Progress in the Non-ferrous Metal Industry of China, etc. The core technology and crucial devices for potash fertilizer production researched and developed by it, including flotation, decalcification, cold crystallization, etc., powerfully support the sustainable development of China's potash fertilizer industry.
The volume of potash fertilizers produced each year reaches 5 million tons, accounting for 60% of the total volume of potash fertilizer production in China, which assists the milestone-type development of China's potash fertilizer industry. The center constructed a solid rock salt and mineral resource utilization project that can produce 440,000 tons of potassium chloride, 600,000 tons of industrial sodium chloride, and 800,000 tons of vacuum salt to assist the development of solid sylvite mineral resources in Southeast Asia, which formed important support to the strategy of Going out for the potash fertilizer industry of China. The center cooperated with Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Group Co., Ltd. to develop the project, the Packaged Preparation Technology and Industrialization for Metal Lithium Negative Electrodes and Core Raw Materials Specially Used for High-specific-energy Batteries, which took the lead to realize high-COD, continuous-brine, comprehensive, and joint production of battery-level lithium chloride, battery-level metal lithium, lithium ribbons and other series of products with a high content of pure lithium and changed the situation of foreign lithium giants' long-term monopoly of China's high-end lithium products. The whole set of the patented technologies of solution-loss-free aluminum-based lithium adsorbent preparation was transferred at the price of RMB 20 million. The center developed a new technique of concentrated seawater comprehensive utilization that takes decalcification and softening/secondary desalination as the core, developed the overall utilization system of valuable elements, such as natrium (liquid salt and refined salt), magnesium (magnesium carbonate, magnesium-based flame retardants, etc.), calcium (calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate), bromine, etc., which laid a solid foundation for the ion of the research and construction of the demonstrative project of large-scale concentrated seawater stepped and comprehensive utilization. The center constructed the first project of shale air pressure liquid-returning full-process treatment (1500 cubic meters per day), which produces water that meets the standard of Class-III surface water and crystal salt that meets the standard of industrial salt, of China, the project of natural gas purification for Chuandong Gas Field (1200 cubic meters per day), without the emission of high-salt-content wastewater, the pilot testing device of lithium extraction for water extracted from high-sulfur-content gas fields, the pilot testing device for high-salt-content wastewater of the coal chemical industry, without quality-based crystal emission, etc., in Petro China Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Sichuan. The center has transferred and ed its scientific and technological achievements to the important industrial bases of Qinghai, Tibet, Ningxia, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Shandong, Jiangxi, Hebei, and other places, as well as the resource development of potassium, lithium, bromine, and natrium of the countries along the route of the Belt and Road, including Laos, Thailand, Argentina, etc., forming an extensive industrial influence at home and abroad.
(Updated in September 2025)
