From October 12 to 15, the Grand Final of the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition (2025) (CICSIC, formerly known as China International College Students’ Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition) was held at Zhengzhou University. The project “Huachu Sci-Tech Innovation — Pioneer of Zinc-Nickel-Air Flow Battery Energy Storage Technology”, mentored by Professor ZhonghuaXiang from the College of Chemical Engineering, won the National Gold Award in the Industry Track (Achievement Transformation Category) for its outstanding performance in achievement transformation and on-site presentation. This remarkable result marks a historic breakthrough for Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), as it is the first-ever Gold Award won by the university in the competition’s Grand Final.
The competition was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and 10 other ministries and commissions, together with the People’s Government of Henan Province, and was hosted by Zhengzhou University and the People’s Government of Zhengzhou Municipality. As the most prestigious, large-scale, and influential innovation event for young students in China, this year’s competition attracted 6.19 million projects from 5,673 universities and colleges across 161 countries and regions, involving 24.43 million participants. A total of 4,720 projects advanced to the Grand Final.
BUCT’s historic gold award achievement was made possible by the university and college’s systematic cultivation and comprehensive support mechanisms. The university has been deeply implementing the “Innovation BUCT” strategy, providing extensive training programs for project selection, team capability enhancement, and project refinement.
The College of Chemical Engineering has attached great importance to innovation and entrepreneurship education, establishing a College-level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Steering Committee that works closely with the university’s innovation programs. The college actively integrates resources for project incubation, collaborates with the University Science Park to organize “Entrepreneurship Boot Camps,” and continuously enhances project quality through college-level roadshows, systematic training, and specialized mentorship sessions, empowering teams to perform at their best.
The project represents the collective wisdom and hard work of the student-faculty team, with full support from Professor ZhonghuaXiang and the Molecular Energy Materials R&D Center. The dual-level (university and college) mentorship team provided precise and full-process guidance, conducting 14 rounds of systematic training and 22 specialized coaching sessions since the project’s inception, ensuring optimal preparation for the final competition.
Looking ahead, the College of Chemical Engineering will continue to deepen the integration of competition and education, further optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, enhance the quality of industry-academia-research collaboration, and make greater contributions to BUCT’s development and high-quality talent cultivation.
Project Introduction
“Huachu Sci-Tech Innovation — Pioneer of Zinc-Nickel-Air Flow Battery Energy Storage Technology”
The project is jointly supervised by Professor Zhonghua Xiang, Dr. Lingling Zhai, Dr. Zhenjie Mu, and Mr. Guobin Zhang from the College of Chemical Engineering. It is led by Ph.D student DiLiu with 14 team members including Qing Han, Yutao Ke, Jingzhong Tan, Xiaolong Li, Guangxing Chen, Yiming Leng, Jialiang Zhang, Xinyu Li, Yan fei Sun, Murong He, Zeyu Shen, Weicheng Huang, Jian Zhang, and Zhisheng Shi.
The project focuses on the zinc-nickel-air flow battery, a novel electrochemical energy storage technology that combines intrinsic safety with environmental friendliness and has now been successfully industrialized. Its core advantages include flexible configuration, ultra-long cycle life, long-duration energy storage capability, and ease maintenance — making it a cutting-edge research topic in large-scale energy storage for distribution grids.
Based on over a decade of research accumulation by the Molecular Energy Materials Research Center from the College of Chemical Engineering, the team has achieved a complete innovation chain — from key material development and principle verification to large-scale electrode fabrication and pilot system testing — ultimately realizing successful market application.
Professor Zhonghua Xiang — Biography
Prof. Zhonghua Xiang is one of doctoral supervisor at college of chemical engineering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, specializes in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysis engineering. He pioneered a covalent organic polymer (COP)-based ORR catalytic system, developed a pyrolysis-free oxygen electrode preparation process, and successfully realized its scalable application in proton exchange membrane fuel cells and zinc-nickel-air flow batteries from molecular scale to industrial scale.
He has published over 130 SCI papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, AIChE J., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., Science Adv.,Nature Communications, and holds 22 authorized invention patents. Professor Xiang has led several National Key R&D Program projects, and has received numerous honors including the Beijing Distinguished Young Scholar Zhongguancun Award, the IFIA Best Invention Award, and the First Prize of Natural Science from the Ministry of Education. He also serves as a young editorial board member for multiple international journals and academic societies.