Hengdian Group’s new materials manufacturer Xinna has halved energy use on a key part of its silica production lines, using an innovative heat recycling process to capture and reuse steam, significantly cutting both costs and emissions. 

"The cost of steam is a major component in the production of silica," a Xinna spokesperson said, explaining that high energy consumption has long been a bottleneck to the company’s ability to advance competitiveness and sustainability efforts.

Zhejiang Xinna Material Science and Technology, a subsidiary of Hengdian Group, is an advanced tech R&D and production enterprise for silica and electronic ceramics, which are widely used in the production of EVs, electronic components, photovoltaics, semiconductors and more.

The technology works "by optimizing the heat energy circulation path,” the waste-heat recycling project's technical lead explained, “to ensure every unit of heat is utilized to its fullest.” Despite initial challenges to the project's success due to excessive pressure on the equipment, the team was able to analyze the problem and finally formulate a solution after running over 200 experiments.

Results have far surpassed expectations in the two years since the project’s implementation, with average steam consumption per unit of production nearly halved. Furthermore, consumption of water, glass, natural gas, electricity, experimental materials and packaging have also been significantly reduced, and waste treatment has been notably improved.

Xinna initially launched its waste-heat recycling project in 2022 as part of an effort to reduce energy consumption through technological innovation. The project was jointly implemented by external technical consultants, an internal R&D team, and production departments.

The company made two major investments for the program. The first involved initial equipment purchase and pipeline installation. The other was an additional expenditure on technical adjustments to boost project effectiveness. All investment was recouped within less than a year through cost savings from energy consumption.

Following Xinna’s waste-heat recycling project’s success, Xinna extended the technology to its subsidiaries, Fujian Xinna Zhengsheng and Anhui Xinna Zhengsheng. The Fujian subsidiary began trial operations of the project in December 2023, cutting energy costs by over ten million RMB by June 2025. Similarly, the Anhui subsidiary implemented the project in March 2024 and achieved cost reductions of several million RMB by June 2025.