1. The first to successfully develop high-purity europium oxide in China
In 1956, after graduating from university, Zhang Guocheng entered the largest comprehensive research base in China's nonferrous metal industry - Youyan Research Institute. The gate of the courtyard.
China is the world's largest country in rare earth resources, with proven rare earth reserves accounting for approximately 43% of the world's total. How to give full play to the advantages of China's rare earth resources being the best in the world, seize the opportunity to develop China's rare earth industry, and make China truly become a major country in rare earth resources-development-production-application-export and dominate the east of the world? Although Zhang Guocheng was unfamiliar with rare earths when he just stepped out of school, he was determined to be associated with them in his twenties and began to explore and climb in this field. He started to engage in rare earth smelting and single rare earths earlier in the country. He has carried out many tasks such as separation research and process design, and has become one of the early members of China's rare earth metallurgical development research. After entering the Youyan General Institute, he realized that the university courses only brought him into the gate of science and technology. The content inside was extensive and profound. If he wanted to succeed, he had to learn everything from scratch and rely on personal efforts. On the tortuous and thorny road of rare earth research that he chose, Zhang Guocheng has been diligent in thinking, bold in practice, and based on innovation with the spirit of "having the courage to stand forward". The red europium oxide, which is indispensable for the bright colors of TV color pictures, was successfully researched by Zhang Guocheng as early as the 1960s. At that time, he had just entered his thirties, and he regarded the urgent problems in people's lives as a breakthrough in scientific research. How to extract a few parts per 100,000 of europium oxide hidden in rare earth metal ores? After repeated studies with his comrades, based on the stability and solubility rules of europium in alkali solution, and repeated calculations, he worked hard for three autumns, and finally succeeded in producing high-purity oxide by zinc powder reduction-alkalinity method. The europium topic was a success. At the same time, the purity of europium oxide is increased from 20 to more than 99.99. The unique process for producing high-purity europium oxide was finally born in his hands. Overcoming this practical problem has made outstanding contributions to the localization of fluorescent materials for color TVs. This achievement won the National Science Conference Award in 1978. Until now, this process is still the advanced method for producing high-purity europium oxide in China, and has been promoted and applied in more than ten rare earth plants across the country.
Everything is difficult at the beginning. The successful development of high-purity europium oxide gave Zhang Guocheng a good start in his exploration in the field of rare earths and laid a solid foundation for the development of China's rare earth industry. The joy of success inspired Zhang Guoli's determination to get involved in the rare earth field at a deeper level.
2. Inventing and creating a new third-generation acid smelting process
Zhang Guocheng always adheres to the principle of “inventing and innovating” in rare earth research. He said with deep understanding: "It is very hard to achieve something in scientific research. It is difficult to become a scientist by working only 8 hours a day. You must integrate yourself into the work, be good at conceiving, boldly practice, and strive to innovate. The results must have their own characteristics. We must get rid of the constraints of others and strive to surpass others." His words and deeds confirm his trajectory of continuous innovation and consecutive championships.
Zhang Guocheng is hailed as the "Father of the Acid Method" by some foreign rare earth colleagues. French rare earth colleagues were very interested in the process invented by Zhang Guocheng and asked to meet the "father" when they came to China. How did you get this title?
The reserves of mixed rare earth minerals stored in Baotou, China, rank first in the world. Due to the complex composition of the ore, its smelting is the most difficult in the world. France, Germany, and Japan used conventional methods, but failed to obtain satisfactory results. It can be said that we are blessed with unique resources, but it is extremely difficult to develop applications.
In the smelting research of Baotou Mine in China, Zhang Guocheng and his colleagues worked hard to overcome difficulties, constantly innovated and developed, achieved three major breakthroughs, and invented the third generation of new acid smelting process. , solved this worldwide problem.
As early as the 1970s, Zhang Guocheng aimed at this extremely practical problem and took it as his main goal, determined to work with his colleagues to achieve early results in this research. At that time, the grade of Baotou ore was only 30, which was difficult to smelt. After repeated consideration, he proposed a process of treating the ore using rotary kiln sulfuric acid roasting.
During the research, he and everyone repeatedly explored and tested many times, and finally produced the first-generation acid process: the ore was roasted with sulfuric acid-double salt precipitation-alkali conversion to produce mixed rare earth chloride. Although this process is relatively complex, has a relatively low rare earth recovery rate, and consumes a large amount of chemical raw materials, it has conquered this stubborn fortress and found a suitable smelting method, giving the Baotou Mine, which was unique in the world at that time, a place to use. This achievement , won the National Science Conference Award in 1978. In order to solve the shortcomings of the first-generation acid process, Zhang Guocheng led everyone to conduct targeted research on the new process. They kept improving and tried repeatedly, and finally succeeded, producing a new second-generation acid process: the sulfuric acid-enhanced roasting extraction method. This process uses extraction methods instead of chemical methods, achieving four "big things", even if the process flow is greatly simplified. , the rare earth recovery rate is greatly improved, the production cost is greatly reduced, and the product quality is greatly improved. The recycling rate increased by about 20% and the cost decreased by about 25%. This has brilliantly solved the problem of smelting in Baotou Mine and has been successfully applied in production practice. It has become China's main process for processing rare earth chloride produced in Baotou Mine. This process technology won the third prize of the National Invention Award.
In the 1980s, the rare earth high-tech market developed rapidly, and the demand for samarium, europium, cerium and neodymium oxide increased significantly in domestic and foreign markets. In order to adapt to market demand, Zhang Guocheng and his colleagues began testing a new third-generation acid smelting process, that is, a new technology for extracting and separating rare earths from sulfuric acid solution. After persistent efforts and gratifying success, a new third-generation acid smelting process was born. Baotou ore is subjected to sulfuric acid-enhanced roasting and water leaching to remove impurities to obtain a pure rare earth sulfate solution, which is directly extracted and separated with P-204. Produces products such as samarium, europium, gadolinium concentrates, pure neodymium oxide and rare earth chloride. The advancement of this technology lies in: simple process, strong adaptability, cost about 10% lower than the second generation, rare earth extraction recovery rate as high as 85%, realizing continuous industrial production. After the project completed industrial testing in 1986, it began to be rapidly promoted in production and achieved good economic benefits. This project won the National Invention Patent Excellence Award, the Second Prize of the National Invention Award, and the Second Prize of the National Award for Promotion of Scientific and Technological Progress Achievements.
In the 1990s, with the support of the Natural Science Foundation and the National Key Basic Research Project-"973" Special Project, Zhang Guocheng successfully researched a new process for rare earth mines in Sichuan. Because the properties of this mine are similar to those of rare earth minerals in many countries around the world, the new process will not only contribute to the development and application of this mineral resource, but will also have an impact on the development of the world's rare earth industry.
Zhang Guocheng not only pays attention to scientific research practice, but also pays attention to summary and continuous deepening and improvement. He co-wrote and edited "Rare Earths" and other monographs.
3. Continuous dedication to make China truly a rare earth power in the world
With the rapid development of high and new technologies, rare earth products have attracted more and more attention from the world, and the accelerated development of the rare earth industry has become more and more important. are increasingly valued by all countries. China has naturally become the focus of the international "rare earth war". But it is not easy to accelerate the development of China's rare earth industry and make more of our products enter the international market.
There are no shortcuts in scientific research, and it is even more difficult to transform results into actual productivity. Whether he is engaged in scientific research or transforming achievements, Zhang Guocheng never stands on the shore and counts the waves, but always sinks to the bottom of the sea himself to feel the depth.
Zhang Guocheng’s scientific research work has its own distinctive personality. In his words, “What cannot be pushed out is not an achievement!”. In exploring the field of rare earths, he faced the main battlefield of developing the rare earth industry, selected topics according to the status of rare earth resources, determined research projects according to market demand and development changes, and based on high standards, high starting point, high efficiency and high benefits; He has a deep understanding of the projects and products that the factory urgently needs to develop, as well as the problems that urgently need to be solved. Therefore, once the results are produced, they are extremely popular with factories and can be quickly converted into productivity.
How many times has he experienced failure during the conversion process? Since the 1970s, acid smelting technology has quickly become the main process for producing rare earth chloride from Baotou mines, and has become the leading technology of Northern Rare Earth Industrial Group. Six rare earth production lines have been built, bringing the annual rare earth concentrate processing capacity to nearly 40,000 tons. tons, with an annual output value of more than 400 million yuan. In one fell swoop, China's annual output of rare earth chloride accounts for about 40% of the world's total consumption, establishing the dominant position of China's rare earth industry in the world.
In the early 1980s, Gansu Company spent 300,000 yuan to buy the second-generation acid smelting technology that Zhang Guocheng was responsible for successfully researching, and invested 4 million yuan to build a new rare earth chloride production line with an annual output of 6,000 tons. It is the first scientific research project of the General Research Institute to sell scientific and technological achievements as commodities. Zhang Guocheng is specifically responsible for the process design, commissioning and commissioning of this production line. Such a large rare earth project is the first at home and abroad. It is groundbreaking and carries an extremely heavy responsibility. For Zhang Guocheng, this is a project that can only succeed and cannot fail. But for this large project with heavy responsibilities, due to insufficient consideration of the composition changes of the raw materials during the industrial test, after the production line was completed and put into operation, the composition of the raw materials fluctuated greatly, and the recovery rate dropped from the design indicator of 85 to 40. Failed, failed miserably! At that time, Zhang Guocheng was about to cry but had no tears. He carried people on his back and ran to the wilderness mountains and howled loudly and vigorously to vent his self-blame. Zhang Guocheng had no choice but to stand up from failure and return to the laboratory to find answers to the problems. In 3 months, he repeatedly modified the process, experimented with formulas many times, conceived so many ways, and practiced so many methods. During these extraordinary days, he was under great pressure, could not eat, could not sleep well, and suddenly lost weight. 7 kg. But he still cheered up and looked for patterns and lessons from nearly a hundred failures. Failed, failed, failed again; improved, improved, improved again, and finally a new plan was formed. Another test run was a complete success. It expands the adaptability to the concentrate composition, makes up for the shortcomings of the original design, meets the design requirements, and enables normal production operation. Then he was relieved of his burden, and was so happy that he almost jumped up. In the practice of scientific research and production, he deeply realized that success comes from failure.
With the unremitting efforts of him and his colleagues, Gansu Company, one of the world's two largest rare earth factories, was finally successfully completed and put into operation. The company's production capacity accounted for 76% of the country's total rare earth chloride production capacity at that time, and its unit cost was 30% lower than other factories. Today, the company's annual output value has reached 260 million to 300 million yuan, and its products have earned more than 70% of foreign exchange from exports and are exported to industrially developed countries such as Britain, Japan, France and Eastern European countries.
From 1983 to 1986, Zhang Guocheng used the third-generation acid treatment method to treat Baotou ore smelting new technology, and tested it at the Harbin flint factory. At that time, he suffered from coronary heart disease, but he still worked non-stop, endured the pain, and insisted on guiding industrial experiments in Bingcheng, Northland. During this period, he wrote a letter to the party organization, in which he said: "When I found out that I had coronary heart disease, I was not pessimistic. Instead, I fought more actively and worked hard, striving to leave something to future generations. I failed to live up to the party’s training for me.” With the cooperation of the factory, the experiment was successful.
In the 1990s, due to the high phosphorus content of Baotou mines, the rare earth recovery rate of the factory dropped, which directly affected the production efficiency. The manufacturers complained endlessly and urgently requested to overcome this difficulty. Another problem faced by Zhang Guocheng was eager to solve how to improve the recovery rate of rare earths. Based on his many years of practical experience in researching rare earths, he first made a rational suggestion to these manufacturers: try the method of reinforcing phosphorus agents. Zhang Guocheng is very prestigious among several rare earth manufacturers in Gansu, because the factory design and smelting processes they adopted were all made by Zhang Guocheng. For this reason, the cadres and workers of these factories attach great importance to his suggestions. As long as something like this comes from Zhang Guocheng, he will take the lead in trial operation in factory production before he has the results of his research, and the rare earth recovery rate will immediately increase by 3 ~4. Don’t underestimate these numbers, because these factories are large-scale, with an annual output of up to 18,000 tons of rare earth chloride. Calculated in this way, the Gansu company alone can increase production by about 540 tons per year: the value per ton is calculated at 13,000 yuan, and these few percentage points mean an annual increase of more than 7 million yuan in revenue.
In order to speed up the transformation of achievements and better promote the development of the rare earth industry, Zhang Guocheng spends one-third or even half of his time on the production front line a year, and spends many holidays on-site. On some New Year's Eve, when people and their families were happily reunited, he was conducting intense test runs with the workers. He said: "My family was very poor when I was a child, and it was the Party that sent me to college. I want to do more work and contribute more to the Party, and live up to the Party's training."