The BP-China Research Center was established in 2001 with $10 million in funding from BP over 10 years. It is focused on researching cleaner energy sources and is a collaboration between BP, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, and other Chinese universities and research institutions. Significant progress has been made in projects focused on oxygen permeable membranes, modified Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, methane conversion processes, and carbon nanomaterials for hydrogen storage.

1. 116/8/25 Thursday Home Chinese
BP­China Research
Center
The 3rd Asia­Pacific
Catalysis Conference ­
APCAT 2003
DICP Symposium
Special Fund
DICP Scientists Hold
Positions in
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BP­China Research Center
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The BP­China Research Center for “Clean Energy Facing the Future” was established in November 2001,
funded by BP with $ 10 millions over a time span of 10 years. This is the fourth BP funding research center in
the world, following the ones at Cambridge
University, Princeton University, University of
California­Berkeley/California Institute of
Technology. It is one of the largest international
collaboration projects for Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS) established with a western
company so far. The Center will carry out a broad
research program considering strategic and
technical issues relating to the development of
cleaner sources of energy, ranging from the
development of natural gas to longer­term issues
associated with hydrogen energy. When Mr. Jintao
HU, Chinese Vice President, had a meeting in
November 2001 with Lord John Browne, the
president of BP, during his visit to United Kingdom, he applauded it is a decision with great strategic foresight
of both sides.
Due to the research experience and
outstanding achievements the Dalian Institute of
Chemical Physics (DICP) has gained in this field in
many years, CAS entrusted DICP with this
collaboration program. Prof. Dr. Xinhe BAO, the
director of DICP, acts as the Principal Investigator
and Dr. Stephen Wittrig is the Principal
Coordinator of BP.
The research program was kicked off officially
in January 2002. Technical research work will be
mainly undertaken at Dalian Institute of Chemical
Physics, the Metals Research Institute of CAS at Shengyang, University of Science and Technology of China.
The energy strategy study will be carried out by Tsinghua University, which will underpin the technical
research. The initial projects identified at the outset of the program are listed in the following:
Oxygen permeable membranes (DICP, Prof. Weishen YANG; University of Science and Technology of China,
Prof. Chusheng CHEN)
Bao Integrated air­POM/DME process (DICP, Prof. Wenzhao LI, Prof. Hengyong XU)
Modified F­T catalysts for more advantageous product distribution (DICP, Prof. Yunjie DING)
Mixed­coupling of methane (DICP, Prof. Zhongmin LIU)
Selective oxidation of methane to methanol/formaldehyde (DICP, Prrof. Can LI)
Direct conversion of methane to H2 and aromatics (DICP, Prof. Xinhe BAO, Prof. Yide XU)
Carbon nanomaterials for hydrogen storage (Institute of Metals Research of CAS, Prof. Huiming CHENG,
Prof. Chang LIU)
Integrated Energy Strategy for China (Tsinghua University, Prof. Weidou NI, Prof. Zheng LI)
Welcome to Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics,CAS!

2. Since the time the program was kicked off, significant progress has been made so far. The following are just
a few examples. The newly developed catalysts for the Fischer­Tropsch synthesis and the catalytic process
have successfully cut off the heavy end of the Schultz­Flory distribution. The main products are diesel with a
setting point of ­12 °C without sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics. The Project of “Integrated air­POM/DME process”
has developed a catalyst and process for the synthesis of DME, which shows a rather stable performance
within 450 h with the CO selectivity, DME
selectivity and DME yield at approximately of 90%,
78% and 70% respectively. The fundamental
research on “Non­oxidative dehydro­aromatization
of methane” has helped us gain deeper insights
into the bifunctionality of the Mo­HZSM­5. Based
on this knowledge, we successfully developed
several effective treatment processes to improve
the catalysts’ stability and activity. The yield of
aromatics is kept over 5% at a time stream of 70 h.
By studying the synthesis and the growth
mechanism of carbon nanotubes and the
characterization of their structure and the hydrogen
storage capacity, multiwalled nanotubes have
been obtained with a hydrogen storage capacity of 3.1 wt%. In addition, the Center has published 3 papers in
the scientific journals abroad and home and a keynote lecture will be presented at the 7th Natural Gas
Conversion Symposium. Two international patents’ application is under process.
BP­ChinaResearchCenter
Founding date November 2001
Principle investigators:
Prof. Stephen Wittrig (UK)
Prof. Xinhe BAO (China)
Participating scientists of DICP
Prof. Weishen Yang,
Prof. Chusheng CHEN
Prof. Wenzhao Li
Prof. Hengyong Xu
Prof. Yunjie Ding
Prof. Zhongmin Liu
Prof. Can Li
Prof. Yide Xu
Participating scientists of Institute of Metals Research ,CAS
Prof. Huiming Cheng
Prof. Chang Liu
Participating scientists ofTsinghuaUniversity
Prof. Weidou Ni
Prof. Zheng LI