This completely biodegradable new material affects all aspects of our lives just like spring rain. Its ultimate goal is to replace traditional petroleum-based plastics with safe and environmentally friendly properties.
At present, Taizhou has not only the "leader" of PLA industry such as Haizheng Group, but also mature supporting enterprises such as mold injection molding, which provides rich soil for the development of this industry.
Acquisition of ecological materials plan
"Green Pass" for Overseas Markets
In recent years, Taizhou plastic products often encounter "technical barriers" when they go abroad. In particular, the latest EU regulations have raised the "entry threshold" for melamine products, resulting in almost all melamine products in China failing to meet the requirements and being rejected from the EU market.
In sharp contrast, PLA materials can get "green passes" in overseas markets such as the European Union and the United States, and attack the city slightly.
In the product exhibition hall of Haizheng Group, the reporter saw that PLA is a milky crystal. So, what kind of magic does it have to attract overseas markets to throw hydrangeas at it?
"PLA is polylactic acid, which is transformed from plants such as corn and cassava. Plants extract starch through multiple processes, ferment it into lactic acid through microorganisms, and then polymerize it into polylactic acid. " Bian Xinchao, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Haizheng biomaterials, is one of the top experts in PLA production in China. He told reporters that PLA is safer, lower carbon and more environmentally friendly than traditional petroleum-based plastics.
"The monomer of traditional plastics is either toxic or carcinogenic, and the monomer lactic acid of PLA is a widely used food additive, which eventually becomes glucose after glycolysis in the body. PLA products will not add and produce any toxic and harmful substances during production and use. " Bian Xinchao said.
The biggest advantage of PLA material lies in its harmony with the environment.
Different from the environmental damage caused by the waste of traditional plastics, the waste PLA products can be "buried" by natural microorganisms and naturally degraded into water and carbon dioxide, and this process only takes 6 to 12 months, which is a real environmental protection material.
This kind of raw material is a renewable biological resource, which is unanimously considered by the industry to be the most promising new "ecological material" in the new century.
From 60℃ to 120℃, Haizheng spent ten years to improve the heat resistance of PLA.
Although PLA material is very strong, it also has weaknesses: poor heat resistance and hydrolysis resistance, which has many restrictions on the use of PLA products.
On the other hand, for the market, whoever can overcome these weaknesses will have the right to speak in the industry.
Today, the right to speak is in the hands of Haizheng.
Haizheng spent ten years to improve the heat resistance of PLA material from 60℃ to 120℃, becoming the first industrial production enterprise of PLA with high temperature resistance in the world.
As early as 1998, Bai Hua, the chairman of Haizheng Group, learned that PLA was being developed and produced abroad. As an entrepreneur, he was keenly aware that biodegradable materials would definitely become the "blue ocean" of the industry. He immediately contacted the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other scientific research institutes, and deployed forces in the company to form a scientific research team to tackle the PLA materials.
From June 5438 to February 2003, Haizheng Group's 30-ton/year polylactic acid production line was completed and began to emerge.
However, the PLA just developed is easy to soften and deform because its maximum thermal resistance is only 60℃, and the product has to be wrapped in insulation blanket and other stupid methods during transportation, so it can not be popularized in more application fields.
In order to solve the problem of material stability, Haizheng Group formally established Zhejiang Haizheng Biomaterials Co., Ltd. in August 2004, and began to look for downstream manufacturers willing to develop related products.
When the financial crisis swept the world in 2008, a "plastic restriction order" made Taizhou plastic enterprises "worse". Some far-sighted Taizhou plastic production enterprises began to transform, and Haizheng seized this opportunity and found a cooperative partner with the intention of cooperation.
Recalling the experience of these years, he said with a smile that he was completely "forced" by the times. Facing a series of challenges, Hai Zheng took this opportunity to start practicing his "internal strength".
For example, Haizheng Biomaterials Co., Ltd. has made the heat resistance of PLA materials climb to a very high level: from the initial 60℃ to 100℃, 10℃, and finally to10℃.
As the first industrial production line of PLA with independent intellectual property rights in China, Haizheng 5000t/a PLA production line was included in the national demonstration project of high-tech industrialization of biomass engineering.
The success of PLA is inseparable from the intellectual support of domestic scientific research institutes and the strong financial support of Haizheng Group. Back and forth, Haizheng Group has invested more than 1 billion RMB in scientific research for the PLA.
At present, Haizheng has become the world's leading PLA manufacturer. Zhejiang Hainuoer Biomaterials Co., Ltd., registered by Haizheng Group in Taizhou Bay Circular Industry Economic Cluster, plans to invest 654.38 billion yuan to build a project with an annual output of 50,000 tons of polylactic acid resin. The bio-industry mentioned in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan is one of the important sectors of Haizheng's future development strategy.
The people's liberation army incited the application market of 10 million tons.
PLA itself has the basic characteristics of general polymer materials, and with the improvement of Shanghai Zheng, it is now competent for most synthetic plastics.
How big is the market of PLA industry? Bian Xinchao calculated an account for the reporter: According to the annual growth rate of plastic products of 9%, the global total plastic products will reach 300 million tons next year. If PLA can replace 10%, it will be a market of more than 10 million tons, and its output value is immeasurable.
This is not a fantasy.
Disposable tableware is the main source of white pollution in the world. The number of disposable plastic tableware exported from China to the United States alone can fill more than 2,000 containers every month. As long as the cost is appropriate, these disposable plastic tableware that causes white pollution can be completely replaced by PLA with high temperature resistance. At present, the number of such products produced by Haizheng high-temperature resistant PLA only accounts for about 2% of the total. With the continuous improvement of Haizheng's production capacity and the continuous decline of costs, this market is further expanding.
In addition, the consumption of paper cups in disposable tableware in the world is huge, exceeding 654.38+000 billion every year. Because the inner wall of traditional paper cups is PE film, discarded paper cups have caused great pollution to the environment. The PLA coated paper cup 100% is biodegradable, and the cost difference is less than 20% compared with PE coated paper cup. At present, some well-known catering chain enterprises have begun to use PLA coated paper cups, supplying nearly 2 billion PLA coated paper cups worldwide every year.
The upgrading of household items is only the beginning. The markets of special fibers, food packaging, engineering plastics, 3D printing consumables, electrical enclosures, and even automobile parts and computers provide a wide range of applications for PLA products.
Favorable policies have also promoted the development of this industry. Film products are the main market direction of biodegradable materials. At present, many countries have passed legislation to support it. For example, Italy banned the production, sale and use of non-biodegradable supermarket shopping bags on 20 1 1. Due to the promotion of legislation, the application of PLA in the membrane market increased rapidly from 20 1 1. In China, this year, Jilin Province issued a regulation prohibiting the production, sale and provision of disposable non-degradable plastic shopping bags and plastic tableware, and decided to formally implement it from June 5438+ 10 next year.
With the progress of science and technology, crop straw and lignocellulose can also replace corn and cassava as the base materials for preparing polylactic acid, which means that the application of PLA will not affect food problems.
With the concerted efforts of Qi Xin, we can make the market "cake" bigger. "We hope to combine the advantages of Taizhou's original plastic molding industry to form a more diversified operation from PLA raw materials to products and form a complete industrial chain." Bian Xinchao said.
"In the future, if polylactic acid products can be used to the maximum extent, the problem of white pollution caused by discarded plastic bags and disposable lunch boxes will be greatly improved. Secondly, the application in food packaging will reduce the frequency of food safety problems. In addition, the development and application of high heat-resistant polylactic acid materials will greatly alleviate the resource shortage of petroleum-based materials. " Bian Xinchao said.