Successfully Put Into Production! 30,000-Ton/Year High-End Polyester Core Monomer Project

Recently, Henan Jinmeng Ju Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinmeng Ju Materials) successfully launched its 30,000-ton annual production project of CHDM in one go, with product purity reaching 99.99%, surpassing the level of leading international companies.

CHDM (1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol) is a core monomer used in the production of high-end polyester PETG/PCTG. For a long time, the world’s core CHDM production technologies have been monopolized by companies from the United States, South Korea, and Japan, including Eastman Chemical Company of the United States, SK Chemicals of South Korea, and Teijin Limited and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation of Japan. This has not only kept China’s raw material import costs at a high level, but has also become a technical bottleneck restricting the breakthrough development of China’s high-end polyester industry.

According to data from the relevant industry in 2024, the import volume of optical-grade polyester (PET) films in our country once reached 450,000 tons, indicating a high degree of import dependence on this high-end polymer material. The annual production of 30,000 tons of CHDM by Jinmeng Polymer marks the realization of large-scale production of key raw materials for high-end polyester in our country, breaking the foreign technology monopoly.

According to Li Shihan, Chairman of Jinmeng Jucai, the company established the development goals of “technological leadership, green and low-carbon operations, and high quality and efficiency” from the early planning stage, with a commitment to building a first-class CHDM production base in China. The company has made independent innovation the core driving force of its development and formed an R&D team comprising the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint R&D Center and its in-house technical experts. After thousands of experimental adjustments and countless days and nights of scientific research, the company successfully and independently developed a dedicated catalyst for two-stage DMT hydrogenation.

Li Shihan said that the breakthrough in this core technology has laid a solid technical foundation for the domestic substitution of the entire polyester industry. From the start of civil construction last July to completion and commissioning this March, the project was put into operation ahead of expectations, demonstrating “Jinmeng speed” and “hardcore efficiency.”

It is reported that in the future, Jinmeng Polymer Materials will invest an additional RMB 1.5 billion to fully improve its industrial layout. In June this year, construction of the Phase II project will begin, including a new DMT unit with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons using recycled polyester bottle flakes and a PETG/PCTG production unit with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons, further extending the midstream segment of the industrial chain and enhancing the capacity and quality of intermediate products. In addition, the Phase III project will include the construction of a full-chain PCTG production unit with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons, incorporating DMT and CHDM.

Li Shihan introduced that, once the project is fully completed and reaches full production capacity, the company will achieve full industrial chain integration from basic chemical raw materials to fine intermediates and then to high-end new materials. It is expected to generate an annual output value of about RMB 3 billion and annual taxes and profits of RMB 500 million, while driving the development of supporting upstream and downstream industries and creating a large number of jobs.