Innovation and Development

World First Photon Tel Net Comes Out

Recently, Prof. Pan Jianwei and his colleagues of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) made a significant progress in applied quantum communications. The first photon telephone network in the world completed in Hefei brings absolutely safe quantum communications from laboratory to daily life. On the basis of commercial optical fiber communication network, it realizes absolutely safe communication among multiple users by quantum telephone without worrying about being tapped. The success of this quantum telephone network demonstrated the practical value of quantum communication for the first time. Their research results were published by Optics Express in its April issue and reported by Science soon afterwards in an article titled “Quantum Telephone Call”. The research results newly published were achieved by the research group consisting of Pan Jianwei, Chen Zengbing, Peng Chengzhi and other researchers of the University of Science and Technology of China in their research on applying quantum communication in practice. They successfully developed a prototype of quantum telephone and established a freely expansible photon telephone network, in which two adjacent nodes were connected by approximate 20km commercial telecommunication optical fiber. It realizes real-time network voice communication and interphone among three users by using one-time pad encryption. It truly realizes instantly connected, real-time encrypted and unbreakable encrypted quantum telephone communication. As commented by editor of Science, “with such demonstration, in the not too distant future ‘quantum privacy’ at your home” will be realized.

Ethylene Glycol to Fill Gap in Industrial Production

On May 7, a press conference was held for CAS “demonstration of industrial application of 10,000 tons of ethylene glycol produced from coal”. With its over 20 years’ technological accumulation and in cooperation with Jiangsu Danhua Group Co., Ltd. and Shanghai GEM Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, CAS successfully developed a complete set of technology for “10,000 ton synthesis of oxalic ester under the catalysis of CO gas phase and synthesis of ethylene glycol under the catalytic hydrogenation of oxalic ester” (“production of ethylene glycol from coal”). Tongliao GEM Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. is building the first demonstration facility in the world for “production of ethylene glycol from coal” with an annual production of 200,000 ton at Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia. This project boasts one of the five key coal chemical demonstration projects in China and is scheduled to be completed and put into production by the end of this year. In the coming five years, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons and is expected to become the largest ethylene glycol manufacturer in China.