Biodegradable materials have come, and PLA has a large global gap

On September 3, at the "Biodegradable Materials Sub-forum" of the "Second China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Green Development Summit" held in Huangpu, Guangzhou, the participating experts shared the status quo of their respective research fields and related scientific research results.


Biodegradable materials policy favors opportunities

In recent years, various countries have reached a consensus on the environmental pollution caused by traditional petroleum-based materials.

In June 2008, my country began to implement the "plastic restriction order" nationwide.

On January 19 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a new version of the plastic ban "Opinions on Progress and Strengthening of Plastic Pollution Control", which will be enforced across the country, and the biodegradable plastic industry has ushered in the market.

On July 10, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 9 departments jointly issued the "Notice on Solid Promotion of Plastic Pollution Control", which clarified the management responsibilities and division of labor of governments at all levels, emphasized the key areas and key links of work, and strengthened It has implemented daily supervision and special inspections, and refined the prohibition and limit management standards; it has pointed out the direction for the promotion of plastic pollution control work and the implementation of supervision responsibilities in various regions, and has provided guidelines for the green transformation of enterprises.

According to Zhen Guangming, chief scientist of bioplastics at Huasheng Green Industry Foundation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, previously, the three Rs for reducing plastic pollution were: Reduce-reduce use: limit emissions by charging additional fees such as carbon taxes; Reuse- —Reuse: use the same product multiple times; Recycle — recycling processing: for example, collecting PET bottles to make fiber products. Now, bioplastics have a new 3R: Replacement: Replacement with bioplastics when they have to be used to reduce carbon or waste; Regulations: use government regulations to limit plastics, control plastic pollution, and develop the bioplastics market; Research——R&D: R&D polymerization technology, blending formula, improving performance, reducing cost and solving pollution. With the introduction of the ban on disposable plastic products that are not easily recycled, the development of biodegradable plastics has been further promoted.

Chen Liping, Chairman of Anhui Fengyuan Biochemical Co., Ltd. pointed out that there are more than 100,000 companies in my country's plastics processing industry with about 4 million employees. The total production value of plastic products is more than 2 trillion yuan, accounting for about a quarter of global consumption. One, ranking first in the world, with a per capita consumption of about 82 kg, which is still lower than the level of developed countries in Europe and America. In developed countries, the United States, the European Union, and Japan have a recycling rate of more than 50% of waste plastics. The recycling rate of waste plastics in developing and underdeveloped countries is only about 20%. The visual and environmental pollution caused by imperfect waste plastic waste disposal has become the focus of social attention, and biodegradable plastics have become a research and development hotspot. The global production capacity of bio-based materials is approximately 33 million tons, and bio-based polymers are approximately 6.5 million tons, with a compound annual growth rate of 27%.

Wang Gexia, researcher and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that due to the low temperature in the seawater environment, the few species and number of specific microorganisms, seawater degradation is different from biodegradation, and a new seawater biodegradable material system needs to be constructed. At present, in the field of seawater degradation, the more potential materials are: starch, cellulose and other natural biodegradable polymer materials; PHAs, PCL and other fully biodegradable materials; PVA, PEG and other water-soluble polymers; PGA, PLGA and other easily hydrolyzed polymerization Material; PGA, PLGA, starch, PVA and biodegradable resin matrix and other blends containing degradation accelerators; new type of degradable copolyester.



The "Blue Ocean" of PLA Market Appears

As the development of biodegradable plastics accelerates, recently, the price of polylactic acid is rising rapidly, the supply is tight, and it is hard to find a single product. A large number of Chinese enterprises have entered this field in the past two years.

Zhen Guangming pointed out that at present, the polylactic acid industry has entered the second stage, and the production capacity has been significantly behind the market, and the supply has exceeded demand. The global gap is 100,000 to 150,000 tons. The expansion of polylactic acid production capacity can be achieved through the following ways: overcoming the technical bottleneck of lactide market and the problem of scale-up (it will take 1 to 2 years); my country’s polylactic acid industry will build a 100,000-ton level sugar to polylactic acid plant ( It will take 3 to 5 years); find alternatives and switch to other (hard) materials such as PGA.

Chen Liping pointed out that Europe and North America are the largest markets for polylactic acid, while the Asia-Pacific region is one of the fastest growing markets. The demand for polylactic acid in Japan, India, China and Thailand will continue to grow, thereby promoting the growth of polylactic acid in the Asia-Pacific market. Fengyuan Group has fully mastered the whole industry chain production technology from corn to lactic acid to polylactic acid fermentation, extraction and polymerization technology and downstream polylactic acid fiber and polylactic acid plastic products.



Many degradation performance requirements

Associate Professor Zhang Caili of the School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering at Beijing Technology and Business University pointed out that biodegradable plastics require a “biodegradable” environment, but it does not mean that biodegradable plastics can only be biodegraded under composting conditions. The conditions and ways of degradation are particularly important. The environmental range experienced by the polymer material in the degradation process may include dry air, humid air, soil, garbage dump, compost environment, sewer, fresh water or marine environment, etc.

The international requirements for the degradation performance of biodegradable plastics are: the organic content is not less than 51%; the relative biodegradation rate is not less than 90%, and each component should be biodegradable.

In addition, due to the requirement that the heavy metals contained in it will enter the soil after biodegradation, in order to prevent the degradation products from causing secondary pollution to the soil, the content of heavy metals should be strictly in accordance with international standards.