Shen Yuehua, a resident of Jianshe Town, Chongming District, founded Shanghai Hengyuan Polymer Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hengyuan Company") in 2002, and has since dedicated herself to research in the field of "humidity." Starting with the research and development of unidirectional, environmentally friendly plant fiber desiccants, she gradually expanded to bidirectional precision humidity control products, and then to the construction of an intelligent humidity management system. Shen Yuehua continuously innovated and reformed, achieving a series of achievements. Today, she holds more than 50 core patents and has become an innovator and pioneer in the field of humidity management. Under Shen Yuehua's leadership, Hengyuan Company has become a standard setter in the industry and a hidden champion in a niche market, with annual sales exceeding 20 million yuan. Last year, Shen Yuehua was successfully selected for the Chongming District's first round of "Yingzhou Talents Plan" leading projects.

Fearless Entrepreneurship ， Giving Wings to Dreams

More than 20 years ago, Shen Yuehua embarked on her entrepreneurial journey, bravely taking the first step towards innovation. She subsequently developed and launched her first product—a biodegradable, paper-like fiber desiccant. At that time, traditional granular desiccants still dominated the market, and Shen Yuehua's new product was therefore largely ignored. However, it is gratifying that this fiber desiccant was included in the industry standard for "Packaging Desiccants" (BB-T 0049-2021) in 2021, becoming an official member of the desiccant family and gradually being applied in various fields such as medicine, health products, and food. Its unique value has been fully proven. Shen Yuehua's forward-thinking and courageous scientific research spirit are destined to lead her on an extraordinary path.

Shen Yuehua has cherished a scientific dream since childhood. After graduating from Chongming Middle School, she was admitted to Fudan University with excellent grades, majoring in polymer materials and engineering. In 1999, upon graduation, Shen Yuehua, who had originally planned to study abroad, changed her life trajectory due to a chance encounter in scientific research.

At that time, she was developing a new type of water-absorbing and biodegradable material to replace the non-biodegradable components in traditional desiccants. This project was originally to be jointly promoted with a company; however, after weighing the economic benefits, the company ultimately chose to withdraw. But Shen Yuehua's enthusiasm was ignited, and she saw unlimited possibilities, deciding to give up studying abroad and embark on entrepreneurship.

Shen Yuehua started her unknown journey with hundreds of thousands of yuan provided by her parents as seed capital. A simple warehouse and some basic research equipment were all Shen Yuehua had at the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey. She poured all her enthusiasm and energy into research and development. Finally, after more than a year of repeated experiments, Shen Yuehua successfully developed a new type of environmentally friendly, biodegradable composite polymer material based on plant fibers. However, how to transform the laboratory results into desiccant products on the market became another challenge facing her.

Due to the lack of corresponding production equipment on the market, Shen Yuehua had to personally design drawings and cooperate with factories to overcome technical difficulties one after another. This process took more than two years, and every step was full of challenges and hardships. "The road to research and development is not easy; the only thing to do is to persevere." Shen Yuehua said with emotion. Today, many of the equipment she designed are still preserved in the factory, some of which are still in production, becoming Shen Yuehua's patents.

Shen Yuehua's fiber desiccant was finally launched. Compared with traditional desiccants, it is more environmentally friendly, more versatile, has greater moisture absorption capacity, and is paper-like, allowing for flexible cutting to meet various packaging requirements. However, due to low market acceptance, product sales were poor. "20 years ago, traditional desiccants dominated the market, and the concept of environmental protection and safety had not yet been deeply rooted in people's hearts. At the same time, some companies had doubts about whether my paper-like desiccant could prevent moisture and dampness, so sales were hindered." Shen Yuehua said that when the company was struggling, a biological reagent company found Shen Yuehua. "This company produces blood glucose test strips, and their small packaging is incompatible with traditional granular desiccants. My paper-like fiber desiccant can be cut to the size of a fingernail and perfectly integrated into the small reagent packaging. It is this small but crucial morphological advantage that has made the biological reagent segment one of Hengyuan's main markets."

On the road of technological innovation, Shen Yuehua dared to break conventions, with fearless courage and firm determination, opening up unprecedented paths. Shen Yuehua said that although the product sales were small and the audience was limited, it was already difficult to successfully develop and launch it to the market. Pioneers always have a long way to go, and now that the product is widely used and recognized by the market, it is the best reward for her efforts.

Shen Yuehua (second from left)

Innovative Humidity Control Materials, Taking the "Industry-Academia-Research" Path

In the early days of her entrepreneurial journey, due to the small target audience of her products, the company's profits were always difficult to increase. Shen Yuehua could only rely on undertaking various research projects to secure a sliver of survival space for the company. In 2006, Shen Yuehua undertook a project for the Shanghai Museum, which became a major turning point in her entrepreneurial journey.

Through this project, Shen Yuehua entered the research field of high-efficiency fiber humidity control boards. However, the initial research path was not smooth, and the lack of precision equipment and insufficient funds became obstacles to her progress. Faced with difficulties, she resolutely decided to return to Fudan University for further studies, utilizing the school's resources to pursue a master's and doctoral degree in related fields while researching the project, opening up a new entrepreneurial path of industry-academia-research integration. Her company also became an industry-academia-research base for Fudan University.

During the learning and research process, Shen Yuehua's cognitive boundaries began to expand. "The materials I research have evolved from the previous biodegradable and unidirectional moisture absorption to more complex bidirectional intelligent humidity control, using the material's own water activity to autonomously sense the environmental humidity, absorbing and releasing water vapor in a timely manner to precisely adjust the relative humidity of a specific space." Shen Yuehua said that different products have different humidity requirements; some are better when drier, and unidirectional moisture-absorbing desiccants are the most suitable. However, for museum collections, a stable and specific humid environment needs to be maintained, and at this time, desiccants are "powerless."

Shen Yuehua consulted teachers, reviewed materials, and constantly practiced, finally developing an organic composite material with bidirectional humidity control function and launching the first generation of humidity control material products—fiber humidity control boards. Later, this innovative product was successfully applied to the protection of bronze ware in the China Pavilion and oil paintings in the Mexico Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and its excellent performance was widely recognized by the industry. "The application of humidity control materials has created a more stable and suitable preservation environment for cultural relics, ensuring their integrity and preservation value." said a relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Museum.

Following the successful application of the first generation of humidity control products, some museums began to pay attention to and put forward the humidity control needs of storage spaces such as warehouses. "Fiber humidity control boards are only suitable for controlling the relative humidity in small environments, while warehouses are large, so new humidity control materials need to be researched." Starting in 2015, during her doctoral studies in engineering, Shen Yuehua further researched and developed new humidity control materials. Through unremitting efforts, Shen Yuehua successfully achieved the transformation of organic polymer materials into inorganic mineral materials, and then innovatively launched mineral humidity control boards, which have been widely used in museum warehouses. "Mineral humidity control boards can be affixed to warehouse walls like tiles, effectively achieving precise control of humidity in large spaces." This successful research and development not only solved the problems of museums, but also laid a solid foundation for Shen Yuehua's future research and application in other fields and scenarios.

"These are all the results of my learning and research." Shen Yuehua said that the industry-academia-research model not only drives the leap forward of academic frontiers, but also accelerates the transformation of company's scientific research achievements into practical applications. In 2019, Hengyuan Company and Fudan Zhangjiang Research Institute jointly established the "Humidity Control Material Joint Research and Development Center," opening a new chapter of deep integration of industry, academia, and research, and injecting strong impetus into the innovative development of the enterprise.

Continuous Improvement in Cognition and Product Service Iteration

As the market recognition of humidity cube humidity control products has increased, after 2015, domestic and foreign merchants have found Shen Yuehua through the Internet, requesting customized precise humidity control products for their industry preservation needs. This not only broadened the market map of Hengyuan Company, but also deeply touched Shen Yuehua's insight into industry needs—it turns out that the demand for precise humidity control is far more than just the cultural relic field; various industries have specific humidity standards for product preservation. For example, the humidity for cigars is around 70%, for calligraphy and painting it's 55%, and for wooden musical instruments it's around 50%... Once humidity control is insufficient, it may lead to product quality degradation, reduced production efficiency, and equipment damage.

Starting from the actual application scenarios of the industry, Shen Yuehua led the team to closely follow customer needs and carry out customized research and development. Based on a thorough understanding of various humidity control mechanisms, she used cross-border integrated innovative thinking to ingeniously combine formulas, adsorption substrates, packaging materials, and production processes to create a series of high-performance precise humidity control products. These innovative achievements are now widely used in many fields such as 5G base stations, new energy vehicles, power cabinets, and tobacco, demonstrating Hengyuan Company's technological strength and market adaptability.

Among them, the "reversible moisture absorption and desorption humidity control bag" is a star product of Hengyuan Company. With its low cost and high efficiency, it provides an excellent solution to the dew condensation problem and is widely used in key equipment such as 5G base stations and new energy vehicles. This product has been mass-produced since 2021 and was recognized as a Shanghai High-tech Achievement Transformation Project the following year. In addition, humidity control films, bags, and cans for the tobacco industry have successfully entered the international market, exported to the United States, Canada, and Europe, and are deeply favored and praised by overseas markets.

This time, the humidity control products researched by Shen Yuehua have become "essential needs," winning the trust and favor of more than 100 companies and becoming an important force in driving the development of enterprises.

In recent years, Shen Yuehua has also led the team to develop a set of intelligent humidity management system. By establishing data models, real-time monitoring, warning, and control in the cloud help customers minimize resource waste, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and reduce energy consumption while ensuring environmental temperature and humidity. This transformation marks Shen Yuehua's strategic upgrade from a material supplier to a service provider, demonstrating her profound understanding of market cognition. "Currently, two-way humidity control and intelligent humidity management are emerging industries both domestically and internationally, and the prospects are very broad."

Shen Yuehua describes her entrepreneurial journey as being like a scientific researcher for the first ten years, exploring in countless experiments. In the following ten years, as products were successively launched, she began to transform, using an entrepreneur's mindset to gradually build a high-tech enterprise integrating research and development, production, and sales. Over the years, the enterprise has kept pace with the construction of the world-class ecological island in the Fusheng Development Zone, steadily advancing, with a bright future.

Looking back over two decades, Shen Yuehua has grown from a novice researcher to an industry leader. This journey has been full of challenges, but also full of rewards. With scientific research as the foundation and industry-academia-research as the wings, she has not only achieved a magnificent transformation of her personal role, but also led the enterprise to new heights. Looking to the future, Shen Yuehua is full of confidence in building "Hengyuan" into a global leader in humidity management and bringing Chinese brands to the world.