The Institute of Coal Chemistry (ICC) is a high-tech R&D institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). ICC conducts basic and applied research primarily in the fields of energy and the environment, advanced materials and green chemistry.
ICC was founded in Dalian as the CAS Laboratory of Coal Chemistry in 1954. In 1961, the laboratory moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi and assumed its current name as part of its expansion.
Since its foundation, ICC has developed from a small laboratory with a staff of 64 into a comprehensive national institution, which is highly influential both at home and abroad. ICC now has a staff of 583, of which 453 are scientific and technological personnel, including one CAS academician and 183 senior scientists. In addition, ICC has two National Thousand Talents Program fellows and 10 CAS Hundred Talents Program fellows.
ICC’s strategic and farsighted research aims to optimize coal use as well as commercialize new and high technologies in its three core research areas. In the process, ICC seeks to develop quality talent, help the nation meet its energy needs and promote sustainable development.
Headquartered in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, ICC has four national-level R&D units: the State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, the State Engineering Laboratory of Indirect Coal Liquefaction, the State Engineering Laboratory of Carbon Fiber Preparation and the Shanxi International Research Center of Coal Chemical Engineering and Technology. It also is home to the CAS Key Laboratory of Carbon Materials and the provincial-level Engineering Research Center for Pulverized Coal Gasification. In addition, ICC has a sound support system comprising its Strategy Study and Engineering Consulting Center, Chemical Engineering Process Design Center, Environmental Impact Assessment Center, Analytical Instrumentation Center and Literature and Computer Network Center.
ICC is one of the institutions in China authorized by the State Council to confer master’s and Ph.D. degrees. ICC now has 36 doctoral advisors and 107 master’s advisors. ICC offers Ph.D. and master’s degrees in chemistry; chemical engineering and technology; materials science and technology; physical chemistry; inorganic chemistry; organic chemistry; chemical engineering; chemical technology; biochemical engineering; applied chemistry; industrial catalysis; material physics and chemistry; materials science; and material processing engineering. ICC also offers master’s degrees in environmental engineering, chemical engineering, and material engineering and has a postdoctoral research program in chemistry. ICC currently has 139 doctoral students and 181 master’s degree students.
ICC publishes the Journal of Fuel Chemistry and Technology and New Carbon Materials, both of which enjoy international recognition. The former journal is listed in Engineering Village, a premier Web platform for accessing engineering information. Furthermore, according to the 2012 edition of Journal Citation Reports issued by the American Institute for Scientific Information, New Carbon Materials’ SCI impact factor was 0.981, with a five-year impact factor of 1.064. Both periodicals were listed among the most internationally influential Chinese periodicals of 2012 by the China Scientific Bibliometric Evaluation Center.
ICC has held a number of international conferences on coal science and C1 chemistry, such as the World Coal Science Conference, the Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference and the Sino-Japan Symposium on C1 Chemistry. Extensive cooperative ties have also been established with renowned universities, research institutions and companies in the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan and South Korea, etc.
Playing an important role in China’s innovation system, ICC has won more than 180 national, CAS, provincial and ministerial achievement awards. Over 570 national patents have also been granted to ICC.
