The development process of chemical products can be traced back to ancient times, when people mainly relied on the direct utilization of natural substances. With the improvement of productivity and changes in demand, people have begun to explore how to transform natural substances into new substances with multiple properties. This led to the emergence of various processing technologies, such as metallurgy, oil refining, papermaking, leather making, etc. These production sectors gradually separated from the chemical industry and became independent production sectors.
In the 20th century, with the vigorous development of large-scale petroleum refining industry and petrochemical industry, the discipline of chemical engineering was further improved. Chemical engineering is based on chemistry, physics, and mathematics, combined with other engineering techniques, to study the common laws of chemical production processes and solve many engineering and technical problems that arise during scaling up and large-scale production. This has further expanded the production scale of the chemical industry, improved production efficiency, and added a large amount of material wealth to humanity.
In China, in the late 1960s to early 1970s, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the construction of the Dongfanghong Refinery in Beijing. This was the first large-scale refinery designed and built by China itself, with an annual processing capacity of 2.5 million tons. At the same time, the Beijing Petrochemical Complex is also under construction, including four chemical plants in Shengli, Xiangyang, Dongfeng, and Shuguang, as well as the Dongfanghong Refinery. In addition, Beijing Dyestuff Factory has pioneered the development history of synthetic indigo in China, and reduced indigo has been put into industrial production. Shenyang Institute of Chemical Technology has also successfully developed China's first systemic broad-spectrum fungicide, carbendazim, which has become a major variety for controlling agricultural pests and diseases in China.
