Energy conservation and reducing energy consumption, as well as improving energy utilization efficiency, is one of the development directions of control valves. The main development directions are as follows.

1. Use control valves with low pressure drop ratios. This reduces the proportion of pressure drop across the control valve in the entire system, thereby lowering energy consumption. Therefore, designing control valves with low pressure drop ratios is one of the development directions. Another direction is to use low-resistance control valves, such as butterfly valves and eccentric rotary valves.

2. Use self-operated control valves: For example, directly use the pressure of the medium behind the valve to form a self-operated control system, utilizing the energy of the controlled medium to achieve pressure control behind the valve.

3. Use control valves with electric actuators. Pneumatic actuators require a certain air pressure throughout the operation of the control valve. Although low-consumption amplifiers can be used, the cumulative air consumption is still significant over time. Using electric actuators requires power when changing the opening of the control valve, and power can be stopped once the desired opening is reached. Therefore, from an energy-saving perspective, electric actuators have significant advantages over pneumatic actuators.

4. Use piezoelectric control valves. In intelligent electric valve positioners, piezoelectric valves are used, which only consume air sources when the output signal increases.

5. Use valve cores with balanced structures to reduce the thrust or torque of the actuator, shrink the diaphragm chamber, and lower energy requirements.

6. Use variable frequency speed control technology instead of control valves. In applications with high pressure drop ratios, if energy consumption is significant, variable frequency speed control technology can be used to change the speed of related operating equipment with a frequency converter, thereby reducing energy consumption.

Protecting the environment: Environmental pollution has become a public nuisance. The pollution caused by control valves mainly includes noise and leakage. Among these, the noise from control valves is particularly severe in terms of environmental pollution.

1. Reduce control valve noise. Develop various methods to reduce control valve noise, including from the design of the control valve flow path to the design of internal components, from analyzing noise sources to implementing noise reduction measures. This mainly includes designing noise-reducing control valves and noise-reducing internal components; reasonably distributing pressure drops, and using external noise reduction measures, such as increasing isolation and using silencers.

2. Reduce atmospheric pollution from control valves. Atmospheric pollution from control valves refers to the "running," "leaking," "dripping," and "leaking" of control valves. These leaks not only waste materials or products but also pollute the atmospheric environment. Sometimes, they can even cause casualties or equipment explosions. Therefore, developing the structure and types of packing for control valves, as well as improving sealing, will be an important research topic for control valves in the future.

The development of high-tech fields such as computer science, control theory, and automation instruments has promoted the development of control valves. For example, the development of fieldbus control valves and intelligent valve positioners, as well as the implementation of digital communication in control valves. The development of control valves has also promoted the advancement of other scientific technologies, such as research on anti-corrosion materials, methods for reducing and mitigating noise, and studies in fluid dynamics. With the advancement of fieldbus technology, control valves will also become more open, intelligent, and reliable. They will work alongside other industrial automation instruments and computer control devices to enhance the functionality of industrial production process control, improve control accuracy, and achieve more significant control effects, playing a more important role in the modernization of our country.