Fu Xiangsheng, Vice President of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation: Innovation is the key to solving all problems

New chemical materials are closely related to national security, national defense security and strategic emerging industries. As a typical representative of a country's industrial and industrial development level as well as its overall technological level, they directly promote and influence the speed and process of a new round of technological revolution and industrial change.

As an important part of new materials, biodegradable and biodegradable materials have become the focus of global research and development in recent years. Facing the requirement of "two-carbon" policy, chemicals and biodegradable plastics produced from bio-based renewable resources have ushered in new development opportunities. Since the promulgate and implement of the policy of banning and limiting plastic products last year, polylactic acid (PLA) and PBAT and other degradable materials have heated up rapidly, becoming the biggest focus of people's attention, enterprise research and development, planning, construction and production, and even overheating, which should attract our attention. First, the industrialization of biodegradable and biodegradable materials is restricted by technology and innovation. Second, biobased chemicals and biodegradable materials, currently not many economically competitive products; Third, the restriction bottleneck of bio-based chemicals and biodegradable materials is obvious. Fourth, biodegradable materials can only partially replace synthetic materials of fossil raw materials, and the solution to plastic pollution cannot be completely dependent on biodegradable materials. These questions deserve our attention and consideration.

Innovation is the key to promoting the high quality development of degradable materials. Through innovation to solve the problem of immature technology, through innovation to solve the problem of engineering industrialization, through innovation to solve the problem of economy and competitiveness. At the same time, in the face of the "double carbon" goal, there is a new field of innovation, that is, the world attaches great importance to a hot topic in research and development and technological breakthroughs -- using carbon dioxide as raw material to produce methanol, and then olefin, organic chemicals and new materials, which is also worth our research and attention.

Cui Xuejun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Chemical News Co., LTD. : "Industry + finance" injects new momentum into the industry

In recent years, China Chemical Industry News Co., Ltd. has been constantly reforming and developing around the 12-word policy of "main battlefield, commanding heights, story-telling and ecological circle". Four years ago, in response to the call of the national financial policy and in light of the actual development of the chemical industry, we launched the "Industrial + Financial Action Plan" to promote the integration of industry and finance in the chemical industry, effectively connect the capital market and promote the development of the real economy. This move has been the industry, the financial sector positive response and support.

Over the past four years, together with the industrial and financial sectors, we have launched a number of exploratory and pioneering work on the theme of "Industry + finance". These include: joint financial institutions to prepare the industry fund; Industrial finance research, last year and this year, mainly focused on the development of industry and finance in the field of degradable materials for subdivided track; Investment and financing docking, signed a number of agreements in new chemical materials and high-end intelligent manufacturing; We will actively promote the construction of an "industry + finance" publicity and service platform. Through this platform, we strive to gather a group of like-minded partners to jointly create an industrial finance environment conducive to the healthy development of the industry and achieve win-win results. As China's capital market gradually matures, becomes more standardized, transparent and open, and the financial support system for small and medium-sized enterprises is further improved, the "Industry + Finance Action Plan" will also inject more new momentum for the high-quality development of the petrochemical industry.

Zhu Jingli, Vice President of Huafeng Group Co., LTD. : Based on green industry, improve the added value of products

Green, low-carbon and circular development is a key strategic goal of Huafeng Group's "14 to 5 billion" industrial layout. In recent years, with the breakthrough in adiponitrile and PPC technology, Huafeng Group has made every effort to cultivate and expand the polyamide 66 integration and degradable plastic industry on the basis of the existing industry. On the track of biodegradable materials, Huafeng Group has made use of the technology accumulation in the industrial chain, after several years of painstaking research and development, so far it has broken through the key technology of improving the performance of PBAT biodegradable materials products, built an industrial device with an annual output of 30,000 tons, and obtained biodegradable products with excellent thermal, mechanical and combined properties.

At the same time, Huafeng Group also closely focused on the goal of carbon neutrality, and successfully developed Co2-based high molecular weight biodegradable materials. This technology mainly uses carbon dioxide captured in industrial waste gas as raw material, and adopts the current mainstream series polymerization process, which can achieve half-year optimized production, and has the advantages of greatly reducing energy consumption, less negative products and stable product performance.

Huafeng Group will strive to promote the product quality, differentiation, environmental protection and high value-added transformation, to achieve the industrial chain, product chain, value chain to the middle and high end. Huafeng Group will also continue to expand on the basis of the existing degradable plastics project, play an exemplary role in the green and low-carbon development of the domestic degradable materials field, provide new solutions for the treatment of degradation pollution, and explore a new development path for carbon to reach the peak carbon comprehensive.

Dong Zhanfeng, Deputy Director of Policy Institute of Environmental Planning Institute, Ministry of Ecology and Environment: Seize the new opportunity of "double carbon" policy

"Double carbon" is a major strategic choice in constructing the new development pattern, and an important commitment made by our country to the international community. At present, carbon emission has become a common externality factor of global development and the most important common political issue in the world. The state has clearly stipulated that economic and social development should be built on the basis of efficient use of resources and green and low-carbon development, and that projects that are energy-intensive and high-emission that do not meet the requirements must be firmly won.

The "two-carbon" policy has brought huge opportunities and market space to the degradable material industry, and how to seize the opportunities is the key. From the perspective of the industry, following the general direction of the country, the development and implementation of the industry carbon neutral strategy is the premise. At the same time, promote the industry pollution and carbon reduction, synergistic efficiency is the basis of the long-term development of the industry, to clearly recognize that carbon benefits, carbon assets are important competitiveness of enterprises. In addition, enterprises should have a long-term development perspective, actively explore carbon neutral strategic plans, make strategic reserves for further expansion and strengthening, and actively strive for a series of favorable policies and special fund support issued by the state. In terms of technology supply, on the one hand, enterprises should increase the digestion of international advanced technologies, on the other hand, they should strengthen the collaborative management of independent and disruptive technologies, strengthen technological breakthroughs and accelerate industrial transformation. Enterprises themselves should also explore new factors to manage production and operation, and accelerate the construction of modern carbon governance capacity.

Ji Junhui, researcher of Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Secretary General of Biodegradable Resin Branch of China Synthetic Resin Association: Plastic pollution control needs both degradation and recycling

People often say "NO to plastic," but the problem is not the plastic itself, but the waste. Due to a large number of cheap plastic disposable products or some other plastic products after the use of waste disposal, resulting in serious pollution of the environment, ecological damage. Statistics show that in 2020, the recycling rate of waste plastic in China is only about 30%, and the remaining 70% is processed through landfill, incineration and leakage, resulting in a large amount of waste plastic. In 2021, China released the 14th Five-Year Plan of Action on plastic pollution, which clearly promotes plastic alternatives and emphasizes the recycling and reuse of discarded plastics. And the use process is contaminated, do not allow recycling and other types of packaging for degradable plastics to provide a huge market space.

At present, there are many new technologies in the field of plastic recycling in China: one is the thermo-mechanical molding technology, which does not need to separate polyolefin wastes, and can be directly mixed for recycling; The second is to use part of polyolefin products to produce asphalt modifier products, the use value is relatively high. At the same time, the field of degradable plastics is developing rapidly in China. According to the products involved in the plastic restriction, the plastic ban will create a market demand of 5 million to 6 million tons of degradable plastics after 2026.

In terms of the price of mainstream degradation materials PBAT and polylactic acid, with the breakthrough of domestic lactide production technology in the past two years, there are no technical barriers to the development of the next step of domestic polylactic acid industry, and the increase of polylactic acid production can be expected. Although the price of corn and grain rose recently, the price of polylactic acid fell gradually and gradually returned to normal. However, due to the soaring price of raw material BDO, the price of PBAT has inverted phenomenon. In the future, with the improvement of the global epidemic, PBAT is expected to enter a good state of development.

Haitong Securities chemical senior analyst Liu Hairong: mainstream materials PLA and PBAT should be considered upstream layout

In terms of degradable materials, PLA and PBAT are currently the mainstream of the industry due to their cost and technological advantages. The market space of PLA and PBAT is large. From the perspective of cost, the future development of PLA is better than that of PBAT.

In the second half of 2020, according to the budget, the output of PBAT is 10,000 tons, and the profit can reach about 100 million yuan. The investment return cycle is 3 months, but the current situation of PBAT industry is not very optimistic. From the perspective of industrial chain, the direct raw materials of PBAT are BDO, adipic acid and PTA. Although the PTA price in 2021 has risen, it is still at a historically low level, and there is little upward pressure on the price in the future. From the point of view of supply and demand of adipic acid, supply and demand will face a tight equilibrium situation. From the perspective of price, the price of BDO products has risen rapidly since 2021 and is close to the peak in recent years. PBAT is loss-making in terms of raw material purchases. Therefore, if the industry wants to invest in PBAT in the future and gain considerable profits, the advantage of raw material integration is indispensable.

The core barrier of PLA is lactide, and the scale of industrial expansion is limited. At present, there are only 5 enterprises in the world that master lactide synthesis technology. Therefore, enterprises that only do PLA in the industry have small production capacity at present, and most of them have stopped production. Judging from the current release situation, the PLA industry will have a good development trend in the next 3 to 5 years. With the development of synthetic biology, bio-based products will be in great demand in the future. At the same time, PLA enterprises also need to move upstream and consider lactic acid matching or planting corn to make up for the shortage of raw materials.

Wen Liang, Director of Planning and Development Department of National Energy Group Chemical Company: Build a new engine for the growth of coal-based new material industry

At present, the pressure of green development of coal chemical industry is great, and the project product solution is single, homogenized problem is serious, and the core competitiveness is not outstanding. Through the development of coal-based new material projects, the goal of energy conservation and consumption reduction can be achieved, and finally the industrial chain can be extended and the value chain can be improved, so as to achieve high-quality and differentiated development or have rules to follow.

Shanghai Pujing Chemical Co., LTD., a mixed-ownership company affiliated to National Energy Group, independently developed PGA biodegradable technology. At present, 2021 Yulin Chemical 50,000 tons/year PGA demonstration project has been launched. This technology is mainly based on the ethylene glycol project under construction, and the cost is much lower than that of lactic acid. It is the same as the mature polylactic acid technology route, and has the advantages of high strength, high barrier, high heat resistance and total degradation. Even at low oil prices, the product cost still has a competitive advantage over biodegradable materials such as PBS and PBAT on the petrochemical route.

National Energy Group will be in accordance with the "coal - chemical - new materials - new energy" integration of intensive layout. Through "green hydrogen, green oxygen, green electricity, hydrogen storage, energy storage" to realize the coupling of new energy and new chemical materials, promote the transformation of coal from fuel to raw material. Through photovoltaic and wind power production of clean electricity, green hydrogen sources, the introduction of coal-based carbon materials efficient hydrogen storage, hydrogen fuel cell trucks and other multi-energy complementary comprehensive utilization, multi-link systematic reduction of coal consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Meng Yuezhong, director of the Institute of Environmental Materials, Sun Yat-sen University: CO₂ based biodegradable materials are promising

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the base of all things, it is perfect, now all the use of combustible ice, coal, oil, natural gas are derived from carbon dioxide, and derived from the things do not exist exhaustion problems.

The Sun Yat-sen University research team has been working on plastic materials for many years. After nearly ten years of research and development, PPC technology was broken through. PPC technology is produced by carbon dioxide and propylene oxide, of which carbon dioxide accounts for 43% and propylene oxide for 57%. It is important to develop a technology called PPC, which can directly turn carbon dioxide produced in the process of making wine into plastic. After years of development, the production capacity of PPC has reached 25,000 tons from a small size, but at the same time, there are problems such as opacity, low glass transition temperature, poor heat resistance and high metal content.

On the basis of PPC, the research and development team of more than 60 people at Sun Yat-sen University spent 9 years to optimize the PPC technology. That is to add anhydride on the basis of PPC technology, and the anhydride can achieve 100% conversion, solve the problem of solid liquid separation. Compared with PBAT degradation materials, the content of PPC-P benzoic acid has little difference, which can achieve degradation. The germination growth rate of PPC-P can reach 97% after degradation compost. On the basis of PPC technology, biodegradable plastics and elastomers with adjustable properties and diverse structures can be prepared by adding cyclohexane epoxy, which can realize the purpose of glass transparency and degradation.

PPC-P and PPC-X are three birds with one stone, using waste gas to produce biodegradable plastics while reducing the use of petroleum, which is more economical.

Feng Yufeng, Deputy Technical Director of Donghua Engineering Technology Co., LTD. : Different raw material paths of BDO affect economy

At present, there are three BDO production processes widely used in China, which are: calcium carbide/acetylene method; Natural gas/acetylene process route; N-butane/maleic anhydride route, three different raw material route economic differences.

At present, most of China's BDO production comes from the calcium carbide/acetylene method. Generally, BDO manufacturers have their own calcium carbide devices. The production cost of calcium carbide is low, the BDO production has advantages, and the enterprise profitability is good. It is expected that the cost advantage of calcium carbide production of BDO will remain in the next 3 to 5 years. However, the production of calcium carbide is high energy consumption and high pollution. Under the background of "double carbon", the long-term development of this path will be limited.

Using natural gas as raw material to produce BDO has the advantage of comprehensive utilization of resources. Natural gas resources are abundant and the price is low in Xinjiang region and Sichuan region, and the natural gas/acetylene method is more economical to produce BDO.

Using n-butane as raw material to produce BDO has the characteristics of low energy consumption, good environmental benefits, mature technology, short process, high price of by-products, and excellent downstream products. The production of BDO by n-butane/maleic anhydride method has good benefit and good prospect.

The cost of BDO produced by different raw material paths varies greatly. We predict that the cost advantage of producing BDO with calcium carbide as raw material will gradually lose. The production of BDO using natural gas as raw material can only be implemented in local areas such as Xinjiang and Sichuan. The path of BDO production with n-butane as raw material will have a leap development.

Qu Yixin, Professor of School of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology: C-4 raw material is assigned the value of PBS degradation material

PBS is a thermoplastic resin, mainly through succinic acid (or succinic anhydride) and butanediol (BDO) esterification, pre-polycondensation and final polycondensation. This method is called esterification. The synthetic raw material can be obtained from either petroleum resources or by fermentation of biological resources. It is the best of biodegradable plastic materials.

The material has the characteristics of good processing performance and excellent biodegradability. Compared with poly (lactic acid), poly (hydroxyalkylate), poly (caprolactone) and other biodegradable plastics, PBS has relatively low price, excellent mechanical properties, good heat resistance, and hot deformation temperature close to 100℃, which is the focus of research and development of biodegradable plastics at home and abroad. Of course, there are drawbacks, such as opacity, rapid degradation, and relatively expensive