21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhao Na reported
Under the policies, the racing curtain of degradable plastics is opening.
In early 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Governance" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"). This upgraded version limited plastic order is also called "the strictest limit order".
The "Opinions" requires the improvement of the management system of plastic products production, circulation, consumption and recycling disposal, and gradually prohibit and restrict the use of non -degradable plastic. Following, provinces and cities have released local policies to control plastic pollution around the main goals required by the central government.
Unconsciously, large merchants began to provide customers with non -woven bags and decomposable plastic bags. The streets of the streets can be seen everywhere.
In addition, China is the world's largest plastic producer and consumer country. Promoting degradable plastic is an important starting point for achieving the goal of "double carbon". Some industry sources have said that the central ministries and commissions have issued a series of policy support, and 2022 may be China's first year of degradable plastic.
"As the world's largest plastic producer and consumer country, China has a complete plastic product industry chain and huge terminal market, which is undoubtedly the biggest advantage of our Chinese enterprises." Reporters, with the improvement of national economic development and the improvement of national environmental protection, quietly changes in both policy and consumption psychology. Low -carbon and environmental protection are already a trend that the plastic industry cannot ignore.
"Post -90s" rescue milk tea
The Spring Festival in 2021 has not arrived, and a "milk tea consumer vomit paper straw" rushed on Weibo hot search.
Some industry experts point out that the use of plastic straws is only a few minutes, but the degradation time may be as long as 500 years. Not only that, the ordinary plastic straws are difficult to recycle and reuse due to small volume and high pollution.
According to the aforementioned "Opinions on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Governance", by the end of 2020, non -degradable disposable plastic straws are prohibited by the catering industry nationwide. As an initial response, many milk tea merchants use paper straws as instead.
However, the softened taste of the paper straws is obviously defeated. Netizens have talked about "too bad", and there are no shortage of ridicule of "paper straws to quit milk tea".
According to past media reports, with conventional milk tea suction pipes with a caliber 1.1 cm and 23 cm in length, the cost of traditional plastic straws is about 0.05 yuan/root, the paper straw is about 0.1 yuan/root, and the PBS composition PLA straw is 0.16 yuan. /root.
In fact, it is explained that at the beginning of the non -degradable disposable plastic straws, why consumers "spit", paper straws still occupied the milk tea shop and cafe straw bucket.
How do consumers do not like paper straws? It can be seen that as a substitute for milk tea straws, the monthly sales of many 304 stainless steel straws on Taobao increased. The merchants also paired with a storage box to facilitate consumers to carry.
At the same time, biodegradable material companies have begun to make degradable straw materials more suitable for daily use through the integration of different materials performance.
The reporter learned that because of affecting taste and other reasons, most of the milk tea shop owners have upgraded paper straws into PLA straws. Paper straws are rare.
In the choice of degradable plastic straws, merchants usually have two options. One is a degradable PLA straw, which is not much different from the experience of the material and plastic straws. The other is a straw to add PBS to PLA. PBS is also a commonly used biodegradable plastic. In most scenarios, both straws can perfectly replace traditional plastic straws.
Of course, the two types of straws are also somewhat different: relative to pure PLA straws at about 65 ° C, fever deformation, and straws with PBS ingredients can be used normally within the range of minus 10 ° C to 80 ° C. Especially in the northern winter, the production temperature of milk tea is usually 65-70 ° C, and higher requirements for the heat resistance of milk tea straws.
The reporter learned that the Chinese chemical name of the PBS is "polytraxylxylxyl glycol", which is a biodegradable polymer synthesized by SUCCINIC ACID and 1,4-butanol. Essence
In fact, PBS is still a young "post -90s" and entered the research field in the 1990s. With the characteristics of low price and good thermal resistance, this material can also be widely used in coffee bean packaging, inner film of paper cups, and disposable tableware. In addition, the transparent bags and packaging bags commonly used in life are also suitable for applying PBS materials to enhance environmental protection.
Opportunities for degradable plastic markets
How big is the market for degradable plastic?
According to the statistics of the China Plastic Association Plastic Regeneration Professional Committee, my country ’s use of plastic bags every day is as high as 3 billion, of which only 1 billion plastic bags used to buy vegetables. The supermarket energy -saving report released by the China Chain Management Association shows that the annual packaging bag consumed by the national supermarket industry is as high as 5 billion yuan, including plastic shopping bags.
Caused white pollution is not only plastic bags, but also plastic bottles and plastic packaging. According to data from the Professional Committee of the China Plastic Association Plastic Regeneration, the total amount of plastic in China was 90.877 million tons in 2020. Even if only 10%of consumption is replaced by degradable plastics, at least the 100 billion -scale market will be.
Biodegradation materials include PLA, PBS, PBAT, PPC, PCL, PGA, PHA and other subdivisions. At present, only PLA and PBAT/PBS and PCL have achieved large -scale commercial production and application in the field of non -medical fields. PHA has an irreplaceable role in the medical market due to outstanding biological solubility.
Anxin Securities Research Report pointed out that global degradable plastic is generally in the early stage of industrialization. From the perspective of technological maturity, product material guarantee, cost competitiveness and aspects, PBAT/PBS, PLA's production capacity expansion may be faster, PPC and other functions The production capacity of the type adding materials will also gradually expand.
According to a news this morning, the State Creation Bio and Nanjing University of Technology launched a biological base PBS project cooperation, planning production capacity reaching one million tons. The project has been confirmed to land in Guangzhou.
The 21st Century Economic Herald reporters learned that the past creatures have cooperated with many industry -university -research and research with Sun Yat -sen University and Jiangnan University in the past. The cooperation with Nanda University is based on project cooperation based on the problem of environmental pollution. It is expected to achieve mass production by the end of the year.
Jiang Yan, a technical team and project leader of the cooperative project, was from Ouyang Pingkai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Academician Ouyang was the earliest discipline leader in the field of biochemical industry in my country.
"PLA cannot be degraded naturally and requires industrial degradation. PBS, which can be degraded under natural conditions, has its own performance advantages of the product." Zhang Zhigan analyzed that the team's final selection of PBS is based on realistic technological advantages and industry development.
According to Jiang Yan, chief scientist of the cooperation project, professor of Nanjing University of Technology, and doctoral supervisor, the biological base PBS is at the cost of cost and cannot enter the market for a long time. Nanjing University of Technology has very excellent technology in the biological synthesis of bio -based PBS core raw materials, namely, is the biological synthesis of Disadic acid. This time, it cooperates with the state creation of biological biology to further improve the efficiency of mass production. The production cost can be directly tied to the petroleum base PBS.
The production capacity of millions of tons is not a small number, especially for companies that are still in the start -up stage.
"Our production capacity planning is running at a million -ton level. Construction in installments is currently negotiating with all parties. After completing the first batch of stable mass production, the later replication and advancement will be much faster." It is hoped to complete this capacity target with 5-10 years.
Combined biology commercialization racing
This newspaper has previously reported the scientific research process and commercialization of synthetic biology (see March 11 "From Laboratory to Production Line: Synthetic Biology Entering the Explosion Explosion Period").
The domestic entrepreneurial team in the field of synthetic biology has different employment backgrounds, and a very large part is scientists entrepreneurship. In addition, there are some doctoral or laboratory researchers, as well as traditional industry people with high sensitivity to technology.
In terms of capital, according to Tianfeng Securities Research Report, the popularity of Synthetic Biology VC in 2021 increased significantly, and the investment in the first and second quarters increased rapidly. $ 100 million, an increase of 33%over the early stage.
The technical breakthrough and large -scale production of synthetic biology allow investment institutions to optimize the pace of commercialization of the industry, and the plastic restriction order has also accelerated the application of synthetic biological technology in the field of degradable plastic.
At the United Nations Environment Conference from February 28 to March 2, 2022, the control of global plastic pollution was one of the most important issues. At the conference, representatives from 175 countries passed a resolution to end plastic pollution.
China is the world's largest plastic producer, and it is also a supplier of major consumer markets such as Europe and the United States. This means that with the advancement of global degradable plastic replacement processes, the degradable material industry will usher in new growth space from raw materials to degradable materials, and then to downstream applications.
Especially since this year, with the introduction of a series of related policies, governments from all over my country, including enterprises, have also strengthened the layout of degradable plastic fields. These jointly promote the outbreak of the industry, and the industry ushered in a good development opportunity in terms of technological tackling or commercial perspective.
In addition, the top technical team carried out innovative cooperation with enterprises, collaborated on the problem of degradable biological plastic capacity, and explored large -scale manufacturing. This has also become one of the ways to promote the rapid development of the biological economy.
"Regardless of the trend of terminal demand, the maturity of technical, and the emphasis on policy, degradable plastic can no longer become options, but become a must -have The development of the plastic industry is very critical.
From the perspective of a wider range of synthetic biology, as a cutting -edge interdisciplinary discipline, it has broad application prospects in the fields of medicine, health, manufacturing, agriculture.
Whether it is a traditional corporate giant or an emerging innovation forces, they are aiming at this new blue ocean with huge potential.
(Writer: Zhao Na Editor: Lin Kun)
Article source:https://www.21jingji.com/article/20220615/herald/661102d78bb679c490ae45182c927212.html
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