From its establishment to address the country's artificial oil refining technology, to undertaking catalytic reforming, urea dewaxing, and hydrogenation catalysts among the "five golden flowers" of refining process technology, and then to achieving full localization of hydrogenation processes and catalysts, it has become a distinct symbol of China's modern refining technology growing from scratch, expanding from small to large, and evolving from weak to strong.

Sinopec Dalian Institute has long been engaged in fields such as hydrocatalysis, environmental protection, and biochemical engineering. In recent years, it has delved deeply into the fundamental essence of the hydrogenation field, promoting continuous breakthroughs in the industrial application of million-tonne fluidized bed and fluidized-solid composite bed technologies, as well as low-cost "oil conversion" technologies. This has reshaped its technological competitive advantages and capabilities, continuously consolidating its leading position in traditional fields.
Meanwhile, we will focus on emerging fields and future industries, lay out plans for developing forward-looking technology platforms such as new energy, new materials, new manufacturing, and artificial intelligence, achieve large-scale application of high-purity hydrogen for fuel cells, demonstrate applications such as direct seawater hydrogen production, high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis hydrogen production, carbon fiber membranes, and flow battery energy storage, promote substantial breakthroughs in high-end carbon materials such as large-diameter ultra-high power graphite electrodes, lithium-ion battery anode coke, sodium-ion battery anode materials, and ultra-pure graphite for semiconductors, enable bio-manufacturing technology to blossom in multiple areas, break through the "bottleneck" problems in refining and production planning and resource optimization industrial software, and accelerate the cultivation and formation of new productive forces.
Sinopec Dalian Institute has thoroughly implemented the energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation", closely adhered to the overall deployment of achieving the "dual carbon" goals, and focused on major needs such as new energy consumption, energy security guarantee, and green industrial transformation. It has accelerated the cultivation of new productive forces in the energy storage field, laid a solid technical and engineering foundation for building typical long-duration energy storage application scenarios such as waste-free enterprises, "zero carbon" stations, and green hydrogen refining, and continuously promoted the transformation and upgrading of the petrochemical industry towards low-carbon, intelligent, and systematic directions.
The iron-chromium flow battery utilizes iron and chromium elements, which are abundant in resource reserves and have controllable costs, as the electrochemical energy storage medium. It possesses prominent advantages such as high intrinsic safety, long cycle life, environmental friendliness, and independent configuration of power and capacity. It is one of the important development directions in the current large-scale and long-duration energy storage technology system, and has shown broad application prospects in various scenarios such as peak shaving and frequency modulation on the generation side, transmission and distribution support, peak shaving and valley filling on the user side, and power auxiliary services.
Focusing on the key common technologies and engineering challenges faced by iron-chromium flow batteries in their large-scale, industrialized, and commercialized development process, the flow battery energy storage team at Sinopec Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has inherited the spirit of scientists and carried forward the excellent tradition of petroleum and petrochemical industries. Guided by system integration and collaborative innovation, they have built a full-chain research and development platform covering "material development - analytical characterization - stack integration - system evaluation".
In terms of materials, a collaborative development system has been established, encompassing the design, preparation, and performance evaluation of key functional materials such as electrodes and electrolytes. At the mechanistic level, relying on multi-scale analysis and characterization methods, the intrinsic correlation between material structure evolution and electrochemical behavior is deeply revealed. In terms of equipment, focusing on high power density fuel cells and modular integration technology, collaborative optimization of fuel cell design and manufacturing processes is promoted.
In terms of systems, through multi-condition operation testing and engineering verification, we continuously enhance the stability, reliability, and adaptability of energy storage systems. In terms of talent, we have a strategic talent echelon led by chief experts for top-level design and supported by backup talents at each level.
Relying on the aforementioned R&D platform, Sinopec Dalian Institute independently developed and established the first set of 30 kW and 125 kW iron-chromium flow battery energy storage systems in the petrochemical industry. It has constructed a "photovoltaic-storage-charging/utilization" smart energy demonstration unit that integrates photovoltaic power generation, energy storage regulation, and terminal energy utilization, achieving on-site consumption and flexible scheduling of new energy. It has made a phased breakthrough in multi-scenario application and large-scale promotion in the petrochemical industry. The relevant technologies have been repeatedly reported in Sinopec News and CCTV News, yielding good economic and social benefits.
Looking ahead, Sinopec Dalian Institute will adhere to the guidance of national major strategic needs and Sinopec's transformation and development goals, continuously promote the iterative upgrading of key technologies and engineering capabilities for iron-chromium flow batteries, accelerate the deep integration of energy storage technology with new energy, hydrogen energy, and integrated energy systems, and gradually form reproducible and scalable long-duration energy storage application models and technical solutions. This will provide solid technological support for enhancing the consumption capacity of new energy, optimizing urban energy structure, and building a safe, efficient, green, and low-carbon energy system.