Russia's first engineering development center for coal chemistry will be established in Kuzbass

The project to establish an Interregional Engineering Development Center will receive 400 million rubles in federal funding. A consortium comprising KuzSTU, the Federal Research Center for Coal and Coal Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Donbass State Technical University, and the Kuzbass-Donbass Scientific and Educational Center received a grant for winning a competition from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The new center, which will be established at KuzSTU, will be a unique full-cycle platform for Russia—from scientific ideas to the commercialization of advanced coal processing technologies. The Kuzbass Engineering Development Center is a response to the global challenges facing the coal industry. It will diversify the economies of coal-mining regions, reduce dependence on imports, and create new high-tech production facilities.

The center's key objective is to develop and transfer to industry at least 20 competitive technologies for the production of high-value-added products. The center will focus on the production of synthetic fuels and hydrogen. The development of new materials—carbon fibers for aviation and space, composites, and polymers; the extraction of valuable elements, such as rare earth metals, humic substances, and mineral waxes for the chemical industry; the development of sorbents for water and air purification; the digitalization of processes through the creation of digital twins and the use of artificial intelligence to optimize production, among other areas.

The center will bring together the powerful scientific and human resources potential, as well as the modern facilities and equipment of leading universities and research institutes in two coal regions—Kuzbass and Donbass. By 2030, the economic impact of the implemented developments on industry is expected to be at least 800 million rubles.