Green chemical industry and sustainable development

The chemical industry is the basic pillar industry in China. The total output value of chemical industry is about 13 trillion yuan, accounting for 17% of the national GDP. China's chemical industry is still dominated by petrochemical industry. The processing mode based on fossil resources is facing transformation and upgrading. The green chemical industry is very important for the sustainable development of human society, mainly including the following aspects: green raw materials. China's chemical manufacturing industry mostly relies on fossil resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. In combination with China's resource situation, the sustainable supply of raw materials needs to be strengthened. According to statistics, only 7% of the global biomass can be used to solve the problem of resources and energy. The world economic cooperation organization (OECD) once pointed out that by 2030, 35% of chemicals and other industrial products are expected to come from biological manufacturing, accounting for 39% of the total industrial output value. The United States uses corn as raw material and Brazil uses sugarcane as raw material to formulate the development strategy of biological manufacturing. China's food security is a basic national policy. It is not appropriate to use food resources as raw materials for large-scale biological manufacturing. However, China is rich in poor biomass resources, such as more than 700 million tons of crop straw and more than 160 million tons of waste forest resources every year. The high-value utilization of these low-grade biomass can not only solve the problem of raw material source, but also reduce the environmental pollution. Green process, equipment and products. As a disruptive technology in the future, synthetic biological technology is the forefront of the biological manufacturing industry and one of the core technologies for upgrading the chemical industry in the future. Synthetic biology is regarded as one of the main driving forces of scientific and technological innovation and economic development in the world.

First of all, synthetic biology carries out the design and synthesis of enzymes and cells, creates new material recognition, biochemical metabolism and other capabilities for life, breaks through the limitations of natural biological evolution, and promotes disruptive technological innovation. Secondly, synthetic biology designs synthetic cell population, which greatly improves the process efficiency of biosynthetic products. At present, the common problems in the chemical industry include: large area, mostly intermittent type, low efficiency; huge equipment volume, often tens or hundreds of cubic meters; many dangerous materials loaded, misoperation or improper explosion resulting in serious environmental safety accidents, serious pollution discharge, etc. In recent years, the production technology and equipment of green chemical industry such as micro chemical industry vigorously promote the development of chemical technology to green and environment-friendly. For example, through micro chemical technology, chemical process can be continuous, reaction and separation effect can be improved, and emission can be reduced; lightweight can be achieved, the use of hazardous materials in the system can be greatly reduced, and intrinsic safety can be improved; specialized chemical equipment can be miniaturized, system space can be reduced, floor area can be reduced, and the dream of "factory in fume hood" can be realized.

The research team uses rapid and precise manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing and numerical control processing to improve the development efficiency of microfluidic reaction equipment and realize the transformation of traditional chemical production mode. China's chemical product system is difficult to break through the limitations of the existing traditional product system. A large number of chemicals rely on imports, and some products have become "stuck". For example, more than 80% of the core raw material of nylon 66 is imported, and its self-sufficiency rate is seriously insufficient. How to break through the restrictions of long-term dependence on imports of hexanediamine on related industrial chains requires independent innovation. Green industrial structure. At present, China's traditional industrial structure is facing great challenges. The problems of large consumption demand and shortage of water and land resources should be solved through scientific and technological innovation. Protein can be produced by biological manufacturing. The efficiency of protein production by biological technology is 1000 times that of plants and 10000 times that of animals. It can be used to manufacture pharmaceutical protein, edible protein and feed protein on a large scale, to produce antibody drugs, artificial meat, etc. The straw can be pretreated in bioreactor to cultivate yeast and harvest a lot of protein, oil and so on, which can alleviate China's dependence on imported soybeans.

In today's science and technology competition, the transformation and upgrading of the chemical industry is "two substitutes and one upgrade", that is, to replace the industrial raw material route of fossil resources with biological renewable resources, to realize the sustainable development of low-carbon economy and industry; to replace the traditional chemical catalytic process route with the cutting-edge technology and disruptive technology such as synthetic biological technology and micro reaction technology, To achieve energy conservation and emission reduction, green environmental protection; to enhance the traditional chemical technology industry with modern biotechnology, to achieve industrial restructuring and competitiveness. The transformation and upgrading of the chemical industry is of great strategic significance for China to speed up the adjustment of economic structure, change of growth mode, save development, clean development and safe development, and establish a green, low-carbon and sustainable economic system of the chemical industry, which can help to achieve the goal of building a strong country in science and technology in the world.