Engineering and Technology Research Center of Comprehensive Development and Utilization of Boron Resources, Liaoning Province was established with the approval of Department of Science and Technology of Liaoning province in June 2004. It is based on the feature resources of boron-magnesium-iron ore in Liaoning Province and relying on the resources of School of Metallurgy in Northeastern University and Liaoning Provincial Key Disciplines called “Environmental science” and New Professional Discipline for National Strategic Emerging Industry called “Resource Cycle Science and Engineering”. It holds the master's degree in environmental science and metallurgical resources cycle science and engineering and holds the right to confer doctoral degrees in metallurgical resources cycle science and engineering, resources and environmental engineering. The center has 45 professional and technical personnel, including 8 professors, 15 associate professors (including senior engineers), 5 lecturers, 7 senior engineers, and 3 postdoctoral researchers. It has 51 master students and 25 doctoral students.
The center gives full play to the advantages of resources in universities and the characteristics of enterprises, further improves the research and development capabilities of the comprehensive development and utilization of boron resources and promotes the sustainable development of the boron industry through the combination of rational and efficient use of resources and environmental governance. Through the combination of “production, learning, and research”, the center can provide complete sets of process technology and equipment for the industrialization of new products and new technologies such as boron series compounds with high technological content and high added value, and new boron-containing materials and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. The center can form boron-based production bases combined with metallurgy-chemical engineering-new materials in Liaoning, turning Liaoning's resource advantages into industrial advantages and product advantages. Therefore, the center has very important economic value and strategic significance for the revitalization of the northeastern old industrial base and the promotion of the national boron industry.
Since its establishment, the center has achieved fruitful research results and has undertaken 3 national scientific and technological research (support) projects, 4 “973 project”, 5 “863 project”, and more than 20 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 1 major project and 3 key projects of The National Natural Science Foundation and has more than 200 cooperation projects with the industrial companies. More than 50 projects are currently under researching.
The center mainly focuses research on the comprehensive development and utilization of boron resources, new production technologies for the boron chemicals, new preparation processes for the boron-containing materials, and the comprehensive utilization of boron-containing secondary resources. Specific content includes: Study on the Reasonable Utilization of Ascharite Mineral Resources and Prolonging Its Exploitation Life; Study on Perfection of Paigeite Fire Separation Process; Separation and Extraction of Uranium Associated with Paigeite; Research on Evaluation System of Boron Resources Development; Study on New Process of Borax Made from Boron-rich Slag; Study on New Preparation Process of Fe-Si-B Alloy; Preparation of boron nitrides such as hexagonal boron nitride, titanium diboride and zirconium diboride; Study on New Process of Boron Steel Smelting; Boron-containing pig iron application research; Preparation and Application of Boron-containing Insulation Materials; Preparation and Application of Boron-containing Glass Fibers; Research on the comprehensive utilization of boron mud and the comprehensive utilization of boron-containing tailings etc. The center possesses sound test equipment and instrumentation for pyrometallurgy, environmental protection, chemical engineering, and material industries. There are 35 sets of equipment with set value over RMB100,000 yuan, which can provide experimental research and related tests for the boron resource utilization and boron materials industries.
The center relies on the boron resources of Liaoning Province and the scientific research advantages of Northeastern University to develop functions such as scientific research, engineering, and industrialization. To make it truly become a “channel” for the transformation of scientific research achievements into industrialization, an incubator for the advanced technology of comprehensive utilization of boron resources, a leading research and development base for boron resources and boron materials.
Principal: Xue Xiangxin
Tel: 024-83687719
Fax:024-23906316