Inject biological "gene" into chemical fiber

One in every two garments in the world is made in China. However, the restriction of raw materials has always been the bottleneck of the development of the chemical fiber industry.

Under this circumstance, chemical fibers with biological "genes" are increasingly attracting the attention of the textile industry.

Duan Xiaoping, president of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, said at the 8th China Bioindustry Conference in a press conference that the tendency of chemical fiber to obtain raw materials from the biomass pathway is increasingly evident in the world. Bio-based materials and bio-based chemical fibers are important breakthroughs in alternative strategies for fossil resources and are an important part of the country's strategic emerging industries.

He pointed out that whether the domestic chemical fiber industry can seize this opportunity to vigorously develop bio-based chemical fiber and raw materials, or will affect the future of the textile industry.

Broad prospects

In 2013, China's textile industry processed 48.5 million tons of fiber, which was 6.8% higher than 2012, accounting for about 58% of the total fiber processing; the total output of chemical fiber was 41.219 million tons, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year, accounting for 65% of the world's chemical fiber output. the above.

At the same time, the data shows that more than 90% of China's chemical fiber industry's products are based on petroleum raw materials, raw material costs account for more than 80% of production costs, and imports exceed 1/2 of the total demand for chemical fiber raw materials.

"The external dependence of domestic chemical fiber raw materials has been close to the industry's steady development of the security cordon, which has brought great investment risks and instability to the development of the entire industry chain," Duan Xiaoping stressed.

However, under the predicament of increasingly tight global resources such as oil, biomass has injected a good dose of chemical fiber.

Duan Xiaoping told reporters from the China Science Journal that in order to alleviate the difficulties that the shortage of resources brings to the chemical fiber industry, it is necessary to implement the strategy of “substituting raw materials” and vigorously develop biochemical raw materials and bio-based chemical fibers.

Bio-based chemical fiber refers to a type of fiber in which raw materials are derived from renewable materials, including natural animal and plant fibers, regenerated fibers, and synthetic fibers derived from biomass. It is considered as a continuation of natural fibers in the industrial age.

Duan Xiaoping said that bio-based chemical fiber has such fine characteristics as being green, environment-friendly, renewable raw materials, and biodegradation, which will help solve the serious shortages of resources and energy and environmental pollution that the current global economic and social development faces.

The abundant domestic reserves of biomass raw materials also light up the development of bio-based chemical fiber. According to statistics, there are about 3 billion tons of crop straws and trees in China, about 2 billion tons of marine shellfish and seaweeds, and about 30 billion tons of animal and plant protein fiber resources.

Wang Yuping, secretary-general of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, also stated that the development of the bio-based fiber industry will give the textile industry flourishing prospects and potential for inexhaustible improvement.

The market is getting more and more mature

Since the last century, the world’s chemical giants such as DuPont Chemical, DOW Chemicals, DSM, BASF and others have shifted from the traditional chemical fiber and chemical industries to the research and industrialization of bio-based chemical fiber and raw materials, and have now taken it as the top priority. Development of business. After the financial crisis, all countries in the world, especially the developed countries, have taken the development of bio-based chemical fiber industry as the commanding point for high-tech fiber.

China is no exception. In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Strategic Emerging Industries Development" and "Fifteenth Five-year Development Plan for Chemical Fibre Industry", the development of bio-based chemical fiber and its raw materials is an important special item. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are jointly promoting the "National Bio-based Materials Major Project Implementation Plan" - "Bio-based Chemical Fibers and Their Raw Materials Special Implementation Plan."

Driven by the national favorable policies, China's bio-based chemical fiber and its raw materials have been vigorously developed in recent years, especially the fiber processing and application market has become increasingly mature.

"At present, China's bio-based chemical fiber production covers almost all varieties of fields, is not behind the new fiber varieties." Duan Xiaoping said.

According to him, China's chitosan fiber, PDT fiber, biological protein fiber, bamboo pulp and hemp pulp fiber have reached the international advanced level; PTT fiber, PBT fiber, polylactic acid (PLA) fiber and other fiber processing have international standards. The application market is becoming more and more mature; Lyocell fiber, PHBV and PLA blended fiber, and seaweed fiber are widely used in the market.

"Bio-based chemical fiber has a wide range of alternatives to conventional chemical fiber in performance, and has been applied in the fields of textiles, medical materials, health protection, aerospace and military, and has huge market potential." Duan Xiaoping said.

According to relevant plans, by 2015, China's bio-based chemical fiber and its raw material production will also increase from 3 million tons in 2012 (including traditional bio-based recycled fibers) to 5.1 million tons, an average annual increase of 17%. The total output value of bio-based chemical fiber and its raw materials will reach 105 billion yuan, with an added value of 44 billion yuan.

Enterprise strength needs to be improved

However, compared with the "big money" of large foreign companies, domestic related companies appear to be somewhat weaker, and the strength of individual fights is still very limited.

Duan Xiaoping pointed out that China's bio-based chemical fiber production is still at a critical stage of industrialization breakthroughs, and the current main task is to achieve "three alternatives," "three combinations," and "three priorities."

He further explained that "three alternatives" are raw material substitution, process substitution, and product substitution. The "three combinations" are combined with the biochemical industry; combined with energy conservation, environmental protection and waste utilization; combined with functional improvement and application. The “three key points” are focused on the capture of bio-polyol production and application technologies, the preparation of polylactic acid fiber raw materials and fiber application technologies, and the diversification and large-scale production technology of marine bio-based fiber raw materials.

With the help of modern biotechnology to develop the chemical fiber industry, Duan Xiaoping is full of confidence. He hoped that through the implementation of these three “three” methods, he could expedite the development and application of bio-based chemical fiber and promote the upgrading and sustainable development of the industrial structure of the chemical fiber industry.

"The next three years, the development goal of bio-based chemical fiber is to form 600,000 tons of bio-based synthetic fiber, 350,000 tons of bio-based cellulose fiber, and 30,000 tons of marine bio-based fiber." Duan Xiaoping said.

To achieve the goal, it is also crucial to increase the production capacity of domestic companies.

In this regard, Duan Xiaoping pointed out that in the future China will have to focus on promoting the construction of demonstration bases and the cultivation of leading enterprises, establish a number of innovative bio-based chemical fiber and its leading enterprises, establish product demonstration and development enterprises, and at the same time, we must also focus on promoting green pulping. And pulp and fiber integration and application and new solvent method cellulose fiber industrialization, cultivation of innovative bio-fibre advantage companies. In addition, we should also focus on promoting the construction of a scientific and technological innovation and research and development platform for the bio-based chemical fiber industry, and build a national engineering and technology center for bio-based fiber materials.

Wang Yuping said that vigorously developing bio-based fibers will bring about profound changes in the related technologies, processes, equipment, talents and business models of the textile and chemical fiber industry.

"Because the application of bio-based fibers in the textile field is already a mature market, coupled with the technical reserves accumulated earlier, as long as the raw material problems are solved and the spinning technology is optimized, the bio-based fibers will become the biggest bright spot for the chemical fiber industry this year." Wang Yuping said.