Jiuwu Hi-Tech’s Dang Jianbing: Driving a Green Future with Membrane Innovation

On March 30,Shanghai Securities News, a publication supervised and sponsored by Xinhua News Agency, published an exclusive interview titled “Jiuwu Hi-Tech’s Dang Jianbing: Driving a Green Future with ‘Membrane’ Innovation.” During the interview, Dang Jianbing stated that the company will continue on its journey of technological innovation with an unwavering spirit of exploration, leveraging advanced materials and technologies to make industry more efficient and life healthier, contributing innovative “membrane power” to China’s green manufacturing and efficient resource utilization. The following is the detailed report.

Everyone is familiar with ceramics, but ceramic membranes remain relatively unknown. In Nanjing, Jiangsu, there is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the production and manufacturing of ceramic membranes—Jiuwu Hi-Tech. Starting as a university-run factory, this private enterprise has consistently cultivated in the field of new ceramic membrane materials. Over 28 years, the company has not only become a national "Specialized and Sophisticated 'Little Giant' Enterprise" but also a champion enterprise in the ceramic membrane sector in China, and has successfully listed on the capital market.

In recent years, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has not only expanded its market in the ceramic membrane industry but has also achieved breakthroughs in key materials for lithium extraction from salt lakes—specifically "lithium adsorbents"—as well as in lithium extraction technology. Recently, a reporter from Shanghai Securities News interviewed Dang Jianbing, Chairman of Jiuwu Hi-Tech, to learn about the company's latest technological advancements and its strategic plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

"There are many forms of ceramic membranes—long ceramic tubes and thin ceramic sheets. Due to their high filtration precision, high temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance, they have gradually become ideal materials for industrial separation processes." As a 1991 graduate of the Department of Chemistry at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Dang Jianbing is exceptionally familiar with the performance characteristics and application scenarios of ceramic membranes.

However, in the 1990s, the Chinese ceramic membrane market was dominated by foreign brands. "They were expensive, difficult to order, and slow to repair," Dang Jianbing recalled. An imported ceramic membrane tube cost as much as tens of thousands of yuan. Technological blockade and service monopolies constrained the development of domestic industries such as pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Adversity is often the starting point for breakthroughs. Academician Xu Nanping, founder of Jiuwu Hi-Tech, led the team to take on the mission of domestic technological advancement, undertaking the National "Ninth Five-Year Plan" Science and Technology Key Project. From countless trials of ceramic powder formulations to the precise design of membrane pore structures; from repeated refinements of molding processes to systematic testing of equipment integration—the research team, with no existing technical blueprints to follow, tackled every technical challenge one by one. Eventually, they successfully developed the first domestically produced ceramic membrane tube, filling a critical domestic gap.

"This ceramic membrane, a truly landmark achievement, not only broke foreign monopolies but also marked the beginning of Jiuwu Hi-Tech's journey as an industry leader," Dang Jianbing explained. He noted that this is also why the company is named "Jiuwu" (which sounds like "Nine-Five" in Chinese), symbolizing its commitment to never forget its origins. Today, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has become the leading enterprise in China's ceramic membrane sector, holding nearly 50% of the market share. The company has not stopped at import substitution; it has actively developed related products, expanded the application fields of its materials, and provides integrated membrane technology solutions for industrial separation processes, environmental water treatment, and more—tailored to specific industries and enterprises. Through these efforts, Jiuwu Hi-Tech continues to contribute its "membrane power" to efficient green production, pollution prevention, and emission control.

In recent years, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has also been driving the industry’s transformation toward intelligent and green development. Through continuous technological breakthroughs and equipment upgrades, the company has been recognized as a “National Green Factory”; its ceramic membrane production workshop has been awarded the title of “Jiangsu Provincial Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Workshop,” achieving comprehensive leadership from product to production. From being a National High-Tech Enterprise to a National Manufacturing Single Champion, from winning four National Science and Technology Progress Awards to being honored as an “Excellent Enterprise in Jiangsu Province,” Jiuwu Hi-Tech has solidified its position in the field of membrane separation through solid scientific research accumulation, while also building strong momentum for the expansion into broader application scenarios in the future.

With the rapid development of the new energy industry, lithium, known as "white petroleum," has become increasingly strategically important. China is rich in lithium resources, but over 70% of these resources are found in salt lakes in regions such as Qinghai and Tibet, where the high magnesium-to-lithium and high sodium-to-lithium ratios make extraction particularly challenging. Traditional lithium extraction processes from salt lakes are complex, energy-intensive, and highly polluting, making it difficult to meet the green development requirements of the new energy industry.

To address this industry challenge, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has demonstrated strong innovation capabilities by taking a different approach, pioneering the “direct lithium extraction from raw brine” process and establishing a core technology system combining “adsorption + membrane technology.” “Traditional lithium extraction processes from salt lakes used the aged brine method, which involved solar evaporation followed by extraction, resulting in low efficiency. Through research, we found that adding an adsorption stage allows the use of lithium adsorbents to directly extract qualified solution from raw brine, which is then concentrated via membrane filtration to obtain a lithium-rich concentrate, significantly improving extraction efficiency,” Dang Jianbing explained. On the material side, the company has developed its fourth-generation aluminum-based and titanium-based adsorbents, with adsorption capacity increased by 30% to 50% compared to third-generation products, far exceeding the industry average. On the process side, by abandoning the traditional aged brine method and directly performing adsorption separation on raw salt lake brine, the lithium recovery rate has been increased to over 90%, achieving an innovative breakthrough in “one-step lithium extraction.”

In 2025, the industrial value of this technological system was fully validated. In the third-phase technical transformation project of the Minmetals Salt Lake Yiliping site in Qinghai, Jiuwu Hi-Tech was deeply involved in technical validation and engineering implementation, custom-developing specialized lithium adsorbents tailored to the site’s high sodium-to-lithium ratio, and completing the full-process design and system integration of the membrane separation system. The project was successfully put into trial operation, achieving a significant increase in the overall lithium extraction rate—marking a major breakthrough for the world’s first industrial-scale raw brine lithium adsorption project.

On an even more profound level, this technological system achieves comprehensive resource utilization and environmental friendliness. The tail brine after lithium extraction can be directly used to produce potash fertilizers, magnesium salts, and other products, with zero wastewater discharge—fully aligning with the principles of low-carbon environmental protection. Compared to foreign technologies, costs are reduced by 30% to 40%; compared to traditional domestic processes, energy consumption is cut by over 50%.

In addition, Jiuwu Hi-Tech assisted salt lake resource companies in establishing the world’s first 10,000-ton-scale full-membrane aged brine lithium extraction project, while also winning the bid for the adsorbent segment of the largest domestic lithium salt integration project—the 40,000-ton-scale project of Salt Lake Industry Group. Currently, Jiuwu’s salt lake lithium extraction technology has been promoted and applied across multiple enterprises, including Salt Lake Industry Group, Minmetals Salt Lake, Tibet Mineral Development, Zangge Lithium, and Jinhai Lithium, earning strong recognition from customers and solidifying its leading position in the domestic market.

From the world’s first 10,000-ton-scale full-membrane lithium extraction project in salt lakes in 2018, to the country’s first resource utilization project for waste salt separation and acid-alkali production in 2020; from the country’s first industrial-scale project for producing building gypsum from titanium gypsum in 2021, to the world’s first 10,000-ton-scale DLE (Direct Lithium Extraction) salt lake lithium project in 2024… Jiuwu Hi-Tech has continuously pushed the boundaries of industrial application through a series of “first-of-its-kind” demonstration projects. The company has expanded membrane separation technology into emerging fields such as new energy, solid waste treatment, titanium dioxide production, and zero liquid discharge, opening up unprecedented application opportunities for the separation materials industry.

"For many years, the company has consistently driven high-quality development through high-intensity technological innovation," Dang Jianbing stated. "In recent years, the company's R&D investment has accounted for over 5% of its operating revenue each year. In 2024, R&D investment reached more than 56 million yuan, exceeding the net profit for that year and accounting for 10.5% of operating revenue."

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030), Jiuwu Hi-Tech has set clear development goals. Dang Jianbing explained that in the coming years, the company will leverage its capabilities in ceramic membrane equipment manufacturing and integrated engineering implementation to continue expanding its application fields. “Applying third-generation tap water treatment technology, which is centered around membrane materials and membrane technology, to upgrade water treatment plants in first- and second-tier cities will be a new business driver for the company’s growth.”

“Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, Jiuwu Hi-Tech has always adhered to a market-oriented approach, supported by high-intensity scientific research to drive high-quality development. The company has formed a three-pronged strategic structure encompassing new materials, integrated solutions, and production services, with its business covering four key areas: new energy services, industrial fluid separation, water treatment and resource utilization, and industrial waste acid resource utilization.” Looking to the future, Dang Jianbing stated that the company will continue its journey of technological innovation with an unwavering spirit of exploration, leveraging advanced materials and technologies to make industry more efficient and life healthier, contributing innovative “membrane power” to China’s green manufacturing and efficient resource utilization.