Building China's Independent Lubricant "Chip": Kunlun Lubricant Launches Its Full Additive Range

On April 23, the launch event "Sharing Core Technology, Winning a New Future Together - Kunlun Lubricant Additives Launched Across the Board" was held alongside the second World Internal Combustion Engine Congress. At the event, Kunlun Lubricant released 72 independently developed additive products at once, with many technologies breaking foreign blockades and replacing imports, sounding the call for scientific and technological self-reliance in China's lubrication field and opening a new chapter for Chinese lubricants. The launch event attracted widespread attention within and beyond the industry.
Xiao Hongwei, Executive Director and Party Secretary of PetroChina Lubricant Company, Liu Zhongda, Deputy General Manager, and Yang Junjie, Senior Consultant, attended the meeting, with specially invited guests including Jin Donghan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Tianjin University, Liu Weimin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, academician of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials and academician of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries, and Li Shusheng, secretary-general of the Chinese Society for Internal Combustion Engines.
Building China's independent lubricant "chip" and mastering core technology
Lubricants are an important driving force behind industrial development, and additives are the "chip" of lubricants, determining lubricant performance; additive technology is the core technology for development in the lubrication field.
For a long time, foreign additive companies have imposed a technology blockade on China. About 85% of China's additive market is monopolised by foreign additive companies, and the additive products needed for China's high-end lubricants depend on imports, making it difficult to provide strong support for building the core competitiveness of the lubricant industry and seriously restricting the further development of Chinese industry. Only by firmly holding independent additive technology in our own hands, breaking the situation of a "chip shortage" in the lubrication industry and building China's own "chip" in the lubrication field can we gain the initiative in industrial development.
Xiao Hongwei said: "Research by Kunlun Lubricant into additive preparation technology and structure-activity relationships covers the entire field of single-additive R&D, forming a relatively complete industrial chain. Its single-additive technology basically covers the R&D field of all additive types, and its preparation technology has broken through the bottleneck of industrial production, representing the domestic advanced level."
Academician Liu Weimin spoke highly of Kunlun Lubricant's independently developed additive technology, saying that Kunlun Lubricant additives represent the highest level of Chinese additives. In fields such as high-end equipment, including high-speed rail, wind power generation and robotics, Kunlun Lubricant has moved to the forefront in China.
Over the years, generation after generation of Kunlun Lubricant people have carried on the relay along the road of independent R&D of lubricant additives, breaking through foreign technology blockades and achieving many R&D results. Among them, the synthesis technology for ashless phenolic and amine antioxidants is at the domestic leading level, with several products already in industrial production and fully replacing imported antioxidants; the synthesis processes for some extreme-pressure anti-wear agents, organic friction modifiers and antirust agents among film-forming additives are at the international advanced level, and the products can effectively solve problems such as lubricant wear resistance, corrosion resistance, extreme pressure, friction reduction and rust prevention. Through independent R&D, Kunlun Lubricant firmly holds the core technology of lubricant additives in its own hands.
Independent innovation promoting "resonance at the same frequency" up and down the industrial chain
Independent technology is a powerful lever for advancing the industry and national industrial development. Through long-term technological accumulation, Kunlun Lubricant has broken through many difficulties in additive R&D. Among them, the five major additive compounding technologies - engine oil additive compounding, gear oil additive compounding, marine oil additive compounding, hydraulic oil additive compounding and turbine oil compounding - not only reduce costs and increase efficiency for the enterprise but also drive "resonance at the same frequency" up and down the industrial chain.
Academician Jin Donghan said that achieving independent and controllable development of the lubricant industrial chain and supply chain is a major issue concerning the national economy and people's livelihood. He was pleased to see that more and more high-end equipment fields are using independent technology products represented by Kunlun Lubricant, which fully reflects the important role of independent and controllable technology across the whole industrial chain in promoting the development and progress of China's equipment manufacturing industry.
The CH-4 and CI-4 diesel engine oils developed by Kunlun Lubricant are internationally leading, breaking the monopoly of foreign technology in mainstream diesel engine oil compound additives; its low-speed and medium-speed marine engine oils have simultaneously obtained OEM certification from the world's two major marine engine makers MAN and MAK, filling a technical gap for PetroChina in this field and leading the world; its domestic long-life turbine oil was trial-used at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant with good results, breaking the monopoly of foreign companies in high-end turbine oils for nuclear power turbines... Kunlun Lubricant's independently developed "core technology" for additive synthesis and compounding has greatly reduced the technical cost of high-end lubricants, repeatedly solving bottleneck problems and helping national industry advance steadily.
At the launch event, Liu Zhongda, Deputy General Manager of the Lubricant Company, explained to the guests the history of the independent R&D of Kunlun Lubricant additives, their industrial application and key future research directions.
Sharing and win-win: promoting independent and controllable development across the whole industrial chain
A single flower does not make spring; it takes a hundred flowers blooming together to fill the garden. China's lubricant industry's transformation from "follower" to "parallel runner" and "leader" cannot be separated from independent innovation, technical cooperation and industrial chain integration. Only by continuously expanding openness, strengthening cooperation and exchange of "industry, academia, research and application" across the whole industrial chain and adopting an "open, collaborative and win-win" approach can the sustainable development of China's lubricant industry be promoted.
Academician Liu Weimin said that many private enterprises wish to enter the additive business but that various evaluations are very difficult. PetroChina has the responsibility and the obligation to build up the three teams for lubricating oils, greases and lubricant additives, to build the platform well and to develop more high-end lubricating oils, greases and lubricant additives, achieving leapfrog development through independent innovation in the additive field.
As a leader in China's lubricant industry, Kunlun Lubricant takes building China's lubricant "chip" and driving the industry's collaborative progress as its corporate social responsibility. At this launch event, Kunlun Lubricant fully launched 72 independently developed additive products - not only a first within the industry but also an important measure to promote win-win results across the whole industry and independent and controllable development of the whole industrial chain, a milestone in scientific and technological self-reliance in China's lubrication field that opens a new chapter for Chinese lubricants.
In the future, Kunlun Lubricant will continue to uphold the brand philosophy of "military-grade quality, a pillar of the great nation", base itself on the three positioning pillars of "strengthening technology, improving services and expanding the brand", actively practise its three brand propositions of "enhancing customer experience, creating value for customers and protecting green mountains and clear waters", insist on independent innovation, forge more "unique skills" and build a world-class digital and intelligent high-tech enterprise with the best returns and the best brand.
The call for scientific and technological self-reliance in China's lubrication field has sounded. Kunlun Lubricant will certainly give full play to the leading role of a pacesetting enterprise, continuously share and win together with the broad ranks of lubricant companies, advance the process of domestic substitution across China's entire lubricant industrial chain and build the high-end "chip" of China's lubricant industry with high technology and high standards, promoting the leapfrog development of domestic lubricants and continuing to support China's independent technological progress.