SDG9.4

Standing at the forefront of green, high-efficiency production and intelligent manufacturing in the raw materials industry, the Center addresses the nonferrous metals sector’s pressing need for low-carbon transformation. It focuses on the underlying scientific and technological bottlenecks that constrain progress in automation and intelligent systems in China’s nonferrous metallurgy, and carries out integrated research across process modeling, online detection, control and optimization, key technology development, and engineering applications. These efforts have established foundational theories and methodologies for controlling complex metallurgical processes, achieved a series of breakthroughs in automation technologies, and generated proprietary optimization and control systems now deployed in copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, and other production processes. The resulting energy savings and performance improvements have produced significant economic and social benefits, with several achievements reaching internationally leading standards. Over time, the Center has grown into a distinctive platform for scientific innovation and talent development, supporting the intelligent upgrading and high-quality development of China’s nonferrous industry. It has received eight National Science and Technology Awards, the Chinese Government Friendship Award, the Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Team Award, and more than fifty provincial and ministerial science and technology awards. To date, it holds more than four hundred national invention patents and has published fifteen monographs. The Center’s team includes forty-two full-time researchers, among them one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, two IEEE Fellows, two recipients of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Awards of Scientific and Technological Progress, eighteen national-level high-end talents, and twenty-one provincial and ministerial talents. Its primary research areas include modeling and optimal control of complex metallurgical processes, online detection of process parameters, intelligent control of aluminum electrolysis, process-flow and thermal-equipment simulation, and advanced energy-saving control technologies and devices.