Vigorously develop the circular economy and pursue a path of intensive development.
Vigorously develop the circular economy and pursue a path of intensive development.
Ten years of sharpening the blade! The scientific journey behind Qingli Calcium Formate.
2025-09-23
“At the time, everyone thought turning yellow phosphorus tail gas into calcium formate raw material was ‘a pipe dream,’ but we were determined to tackle this tough challenge anyway.” Recalling the R&D journey of the core technology behind calcium formate, the head of research at Guizhou Qingli Group spoke with unwavering determination. This product, which has earned a national invention patent, is the result of more than ten years of intensive scientific research—and reflects the company’s steadfast commitment to green innovation.
“At the time, everyone thought turning yellow phosphorus tail gas into calcium formate raw material was ‘a pipe dream,’ but we were determined to tackle this tough challenge anyway.” Recalling the R&D journey of the core technology behind calcium formate, the head of research at Guizhou Qingli Group spoke with unwavering determination. This product, which has earned a national invention patent, is the result of more than ten years of intensive scientific research—and reflects the company’s steadfast commitment to green innovation.
The story began around 2010, when Qingli Group had already established a solid foothold in the phosphate chemical industry. Yet, the treatment of yellow phosphorus tail gas remained a long-standing and persistent challenge for the company. The conventional combustion method not only wasted resources but also faced increasingly stringent environmental regulations. “Either we’d be forced to transform by environmental policies, or we’d take the initiative and gain control,” said the company’s leadership. With their firm support, a research team composed of experts from various fields—including chemical engineering, environmental protection, and materials science—was officially formed, embarking on a journey to explore the resource utilization of tail gas.
In the early stages of R&D, the team encountered numerous obstacles: the tail gas from yellow phosphorus is highly complex in composition, containing impurities such as phosphine and hydrogen sulfide that are extremely difficult to remove, directly affecting subsequent synthesis reactions; the reaction between carbon monoxide and calcium hydroxide requires rather stringent conditions—any slight deviation in temperature or pressure can lead to substandard product purity; and improper handling of reaction byproducts could even cause secondary pollution... To overcome these challenges, the team conducted over a thousand experiments in the lab, successively optimizing more than 30 different purification process schemes and independently developing highly efficient catalysts and a sophisticated reaction control system.
The most challenging phase was the pilot-scale testing in 2015, during which three consecutive trial productions ended with insufficient product purity, putting millions of dollars in R&D investment at risk of being wasted. “Let’s give it one last try—this time, we’ll adjust the reaction pressure parameters,” the team members said. They stayed up late into the night, meticulously monitoring the data, and finally achieved a breakthrough on the fourth attempt: the calcium formate purity reached over 98%, and carbon emissions were reduced by 60% compared to the conventional process. In 2018, this technology successfully obtained national invention patent certification, and in 2020, it was scaled up for commercial production, generating tens of millions of yuan in output value that same year.
Today, as Qingli Group’s calcium formate is sold far and wide across the country, its research team continues to refine and upgrade its technology. “Right now, we’ve managed to boost the utilization rate of exhaust gases to 99%. Our next step is to develop an even more efficient synthesis process.” It is precisely this spirit of relentless pursuit of excellence that has enabled Qingli Group to take the lead in the field of green chemistry—and it’s also what gives calcium formate product greater potential for driving industry breakthroughs.
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