"Turning danger into safety": She provides safety "identity cards" for more than 5,000 types of hazardous chemicals

Xinhua News Agency, Shenyang, December 3rd, titled: "Turning danger into safety": She provides safety "identity cards" for more than 5,000 kinds of dangerous chemicals

"What we do is to 'turn danger into safety,'" said Cheng Chunsheng, chief engineer of Sinochem Shenyang Chemical Research Institute. During the development and growth of the chemical industry in the Republic of China, Cheng Chunsheng led his team to study process and chemical reaction risks for more than 30 years, and added safety "identity cards" for more than 5,000 kinds of hazardous chemicals, increasing the safety factor for this industry closely related to "danger".

Cheng Chunsheng in the laboratory (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Nylon rope, herbicide, plastic water bottle... Chemical products are indispensable in our lives, but if we cannot understand the technical parameters and safety limits of the process design in the manufacturing process of chemical products, it will not only consume a lot of energy, but also easily cause safety accidents. The field of chemical reaction risk research needs a group of professionals who can sit still and concentrate on research.

Since graduating and joining the Shenyang Institute of Chemical Technology in 1983, Cheng Chunsheng has been working on the front lines of scientific research and industry, and has long been engaged in research on chemical processes and chemical reaction risks. Her research has filled the long-standing gap in my country's core technology system for chemical reaction risk research, risk assessment and risk control.

"I almost lost my life." When talking about why he chose to delve into this field, Cheng Chunsheng mentioned an experience that he still remembers today. "I was in my 20s at the time. During the development of a herbicide, the operator increased the distillation temperature and prolonged the distillation time, which led to an explosion. We almost ran out rolling and crawling. If we were slower, we might have lost our lives. The huge noise, the black smoke at the scene, and the black tar spraying all over the room scared me to tears at the time."

Cheng Chunsheng and his team are conducting safety experiments (Photo provided by the interviewee)

What made Cheng Chunsheng even more scared was that the root cause of the accident was the lack of research on chemical reaction risks in China at that time, and the lack of understanding of the stability, temperature and safety control conditions of chemicals and chemical reactions. These experiences planted the seeds of pioneering research on chemical reaction risks in the young Cheng Chunsheng's heart.

In 2005, Cheng Chunsheng, who had already started to get involved in this field, felt the gap with foreign countries for the first time.

Cheng Chunsheng told reporters that she went to an industrial park in Switzerland for technical exchanges. The advanced safety monitoring equipment in front of her, as well as the risk research technology mastered by foreign counterparts, were things she had never seen or heard of before.

As soon as she returned to China, Cheng Chunsheng began to study. Without Chinese reference materials, she would "read" foreign materials. As my country gradually promoted the construction of chemical safety system, Sinochem has increased its investment in science and technology since 2007 and built a reaction risk research platform at its subordinate Shenyang Chemical Research Institute. Cheng Chunsheng became the leader of the platform.

"This is a new interdisciplinary subject. Lack of experience and accumulation are all practical problems," said Cheng Chunsheng. However, if we take it step by step, there is no barrier that cannot be overcome. All chemicals have decomposition points, some slowly decompose, and some significantly decompose. If one experiment doesn't work, do it a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand times.

Through experiments again and again, and research and demonstrations over and over, Cheng Chunsheng led his team to obtain safety data for chemical reaction processes, conduct reaction safety risk assessments, add safety "identity cards" to hazardous chemicals, and promote their application in the national fine chemical industry, providing important scientific and technological support for the chemical industry's "turning danger into safety."

Cheng Chunsheng devoted her youth to research. The monographs she edited, such as "Chemical Safety Production and Reaction Risk Assessment" and "Fine Chemical Reaction Risk and Control", filled the gap in domestic safety risk assessment monographs and became must-read textbooks in related disciplines.

During the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plans, Cheng Chunsheng took the lead in completing the national major scientific and technological achievement transformation project "Chemical Reaction Risk Research and Safety Assessment Technology Transformation and Application" and the Liaoning Province major special project "Chemical Safety Technology Research and Development and Application", which played a great role in improving the automation level of my country's fine chemical industry and achieving quality improvement, efficiency enhancement and digital transformation.

The "Fine Chemical Reaction Safety Risk Assessment Specifications" she led in drafting is being transformed into a national standard under the promotion of relevant national departments.

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Thanks to the efforts of Cheng Chunsheng and her team, my country, which started 20 years later than international advanced companies in chemical reaction risk research, has now leapt into the international leading ranks.

The vice president of a Swiss chemical company who was visiting the Shenyang Institute of Chemical Technology gave a thumbs up to Cheng Chunsheng after seeing my country's advanced research results on chemical reaction risks.

Now, a new batch of major technical research tasks falls on Cheng Chunsheng's shoulders.

She has short, neat hair and a pair of thin glasses on her nose. She walks briskly and smiles when she talks. It is hard to imagine that this gentle female engineer is leading the team to "tame" more and more dangerous chemicals.

Cheng Chunsheng has been selected as a national candidate for the New Century Talents Program, the fifth national outstanding professional and technical talent, a national model of science and technology for the "Ideals and Contributions" activity, and a national March 8th Red Flag Bearer. Despite all the honors, she remains true to her original aspirations. "I love my career from the bottom of my heart and am willing to devote my all to the chemical industry. If we work harder, the industry will be safer!" she said.

Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Wei and Yu Yetong