Not long ago, six departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Accelerating the Innovation and Development of Non-grain Bio-based Materials", and proposed that by 2025, the non-grain bio-based material industry will basically form a strong independent innovation capability and continuously enrich the product system , Green, circular and low-carbon innovative development ecology, the utilization and application technology of non-grain biomass raw materials are basically mature, and the competitiveness of some non-grain bio-based products is equivalent to that of fossil-based products.
Experts in the industry believe that the "Action Plan" aims to promote the accelerated innovation and development of bio-based materials based on non-food biomass based on my country's national conditions and promote the coordinated development of industry and agriculture. Quality development guidance and carbon peak implementation plan.
Promoting the green transformation of the chemical industry
Bio-based materials are new materials and chemical products made from renewable biomass such as grains, legumes, straw, bamboo, and wood powder, including bio-alcohols, organic acids, alkanes, Basic bio-based chemical products such as olefins, but also bio-based plastics, bio-based fibers, sugar engineering products, bio-based rubber, etc.
"My country's bio-based material industry is developing rapidly, with continuous breakthroughs in key technologies such as functional strains and protein components, and an increasingly diverse range of products. A pattern in which polylactic acid and polyamide are the first to be industrialized and a variety of bio-based materials to develop rapidly." Li Wenjun, deputy secretary-general of the Biochemical and Biomass Energy Committee of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, introduced that in 2021, my country's bio-based material output will be 7 million tons, with an output value of more than 150-billion-yuan, accounting for 2.3% of the total output value of the chemical industry, and in 2021. It is widely used in plastic products, textile fibers, medical equipment, coatings, agricultural materials, surfactants, etc. For example, express packaging, disposable tableware and shopping bags, baby diapers and other products are made of bio-based plastics.
Weng Yun Xuan, dean of the School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering of Beijing Technology and Business University, revealed to reporters that a group of key enterprises and research institutes are actively promoting the development and utilization of bio-based materials. Industrial agglomeration areas such as Puyang, Henan. Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" strategy, the bio-based material industry has become a hot spot for the green transformation of the petroleum and chemical industries and will usher in more development opportunities.
My country's bio-based materials are in a critical period from scientific research and development to industrial scale application, but there are still many weak links. According to Weng Yun Xuan, on the one hand, the cost of bio-based materials is generally more than 30% higher than that of similar petroleum-based products, the market substitution advantage is weak, and promotion and application are difficult; on the other hand, technologies such as efficient purification and separation of low-concentration products and bio-based polymer synthesis have not yet broken through . In this context, it is particularly important to plan policies based on the utilization of non-food biomass and promote the innovation and development of bio-based materials, to take the lead in the development of bio-based economy, to act actively, and to enhance international comprehensive competitiveness.
What is the significance of focusing on "non-food”?
It should be noted that the current bio-based materials are mainly based on grain raw materials. Compared with some resource-rich countries, my country's per capita arable land and grain reserves are quite different. Although the harvests have been bumper year after year and the market is stable, the development of bio-based materials based on grain raw materials is unsustainable. Feed" and other contradictions. Therefore, the development of bio-based materials must establish and implement the "big food concept", implement the strategy of "storing grain in technology", convert traditional non-grain biomass into raw materials for the development of bio-based materials, and indirectly increase the "grain" production per unit of cultivated land in our country. out.
"Non-food biomass mainly includes crop straw, forestry waste, firewood forest, woody oil forest, shrub forest, organic domestic waste, livestock and poultry manure, domestic sewage sludge, etc." Li Wenjun introduced that my country's annual output of various non-food Grain biomass exceeds 3.5 billion tons. Among them, 960 million tons of agricultural waste, 350 million tons of forestry waste, 150 million tons of organic domestic waste, 1.9 billion tons of livestock and poultry manure, 150 million tons of agricultural product processing waste, and 40 million tons of sewage sludge. If these wastes cannot be properly disposed of, they will not only cause great harm to the environment and the health of residents, but also make it difficult to recycle the resources contained in them. The common practice in various countries is to turn them into Turn waste into treasure.
"The development of non-grain bio-based materials can not only reduce the consumption of fossil energy such as petroleum and coal, but also reduce carbon dioxide emissions." Li Wenjun explained that the carbon emissions of producing 1 kg of nylon-56 made of non-grain bio-based raw materials, compared with the production of 1 kg of nylon-66 is reduced by 4.31 kg. When non-food bio-based materials are discarded, most of them can be converted into non-toxic small molecules of water and carbon dioxide through biodegradation methods such as burning or composting and re-enter the natural cycle to maintain the entire ecological balance without worrying about the increase of carbon emissions.
However, compared with the route of large-scale production of bio-based materials based on grain, non-grain bio-based materials use bulk crop straw and residues as raw materials, and it is more difficult in terms of raw material pretreatment, saccharification and fermentation conversion efficiency, and comprehensive cost control. Key platform technologies such as the preparation of industrial strains (groups) and enzyme protein functional components, standardized harvesting and storage of non-grain biomass, and high efficiency saccharification of non-grain biomass are in the climbing stage of research and development, and the coupling and connection with existing technology needs to be broken through.
"In view of this, the "Action Plan" is based on technological breakthroughs in the development and utilization of non-food biomass, deepens the coupling of biochemical and traditional chemical industries, and the integration of industry and agriculture, and uses technology and model innovation as the driving force to promote the superior performance and cost reduction of bio-based materials. , increase varieties, expand applications, enhance the collaborative innovation, scale production, and market penetration capabilities of the bio-based material industry, and promote the accelerated innovation and development of the non-grain bio-based material industry." Weng Yunxuan said.
Give full play to the scale benefits of industrial clusters.
Enterprises are the main body of scientific and technological innovation, and industrial clusters are an important carrier to promote the transformation and upgrading of the bio-based material industry and lead regional economic development. Most of the enterprises producing bio-based materials in my country are not large in scale, and more backbone enterprises need to be cultivated to create industrial clusters and demonstration bases with more distinctive features. The "Action Plan" clarifies the goal: strive to form about 5 backbone enterprises with core competitiveness, distinctive features, and outstanding development advantages by 2025, and build 3 to 5 bio-based material industry clusters. "It is necessary to strengthen departmental coordination and linkage between provinces and ministries, encourage local governments to coordinate the needs of non-grain biomass industry and rural development, and support the deep coupling of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain." Weng Yun Xuan said.
Under the guidance of the "Action Plan", all localities have stepped up their deployment to accelerate the high-end and large-scale development of the local bio-based material industry. Shanxi proposed to focus on the construction of Shanxi Synthetic Biology Industrial Ecological Park with backbone enterprises as the main body, actively promote the project with an annual output of 500,000 tons of bio-based pentamethylenediamine, the project of an annual output of 900,000 tons of bio-based polyamide and the project of an annual output of 80,000 tons of bio-based long Chain dibasic acid project construction, the introduction of downstream polyamide melt direct spinning civil yarn, industrial yarn, carpet yarn, textile, printing and dyeing, clothing and other supporting projects with an area of about 3,000 mu; Chemical industry parks and other new material industry clusters will build public service projects such as general technology research and development, pilot tests, and test verifications; Henan will deploy "straw-furan formaldehyde" production bases throughout the province to support key enterprises in horizontal expansion and vertical chain extension , Accelerate the construction of key projects such as 20,000 tons of bio-based tetrahydrofuran, 10,000 tons of bio-based methanol, and 300,000 tons of PBS.
"We should give full play to the advantages of abundant biomass raw materials in bulk crop production areas, build distributed non-grain biomass saccharification production bases, encourage qualified regions to form industrial clusters, support qualified industrial clusters to build national new industrialization industry demonstration bases, and improve Industrial scale benefits and influence." Li Wenjun said.
The realization of the goal also needs the support of a complete industrial system. In Weng Yun Xuan’s view, the industrial service platforms in the field of bio-based materials in my country are relatively scattered, and service capabilities such as intellectual property protection, material testing and evaluation, and material database construction have not yet formed a strong support for the industrial chain and downstream applications. To this end, the "Action Plan" recommends strengthening the construction of industrial service platforms, improving the systems of microbial strain breeding technology, bio-based material technology research and development, achievement transformation and application, and intellectual property protection, relying on the National Plastic Products Quality Inspection and Testing Center, advanced high-tech Molecular material testing center, etc. to enhance testing and evaluation service capabilities.
In addition, bio-based materials generally follow the standard system of petroleum-based materials, lack of standard systems such as energy consumption quotas, carbon emission accounting, and identification labels and traceability systems, which fail to fully reflect the ecological and environmental friendliness of bio-based materials. "Should establish and improve the standard system of bio-based material product quality, energy consumption quota, carbon emission accounting and related pollutant emission standards suitable for my country's industrial characteristics, and establish bio-based materials and product evaluation methods, product standards, technical standards, identification labels, etc. The identification and traceability system supports third-party organizations to carry out product certification, identification and traceability services." Weng Yun Xuan said.