—An Interview with Ji Junhui, Professor at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS and Director of National Engineering Research Center of Engineering Plastics

【CCN】 Biodegradable plastics have become popular, and the industry has seen more new players in 2021 after the introduction of regulations on the restriction of plastics use. How will the industry develop under such circumstance?

【Ji Junhui】 The "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution" (No. 80), jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Environmental Protection on January 16, 2020, played a very important role in promoting the development of China’s degraded plastics. As the policy has made a detailed and doable deployment for the treatment of plastic pollution and the application of degradable plastics in China, it presented everyone a very clear prospect of degradable plastics market. With such support, degradable plastics have been developed rapidly. There have been many capitals and enterprises entering the industry in the past two years, including new players and upstream and downstream companies of degraded plastic products.

Following degradable plastics have enjoyed rapid growth.

1. PBAT. There are 30-40 enterprises with a total capacity plan of 20 million t/a. However, only 1 million t/a capacities are under construction. It is estimated that 200 thousand t/a capacity was commissioned in 2021 and 400 thousand t/a in 2022. 

2. PLA. Thanks to the propylene glycol engineering technology breakthrough of Haizheng and Fengyuan, China’s PLA capacity is expanding quickly. Fengyuan’s 300 thousand t/a line and Haizheng’s 45 thousand t/a project were both scheduled to be put into production at the end of 2021 or at the beginning of 2022. 

3. PHA. Benefiting from the "double carbon" policy, PHA, as a whole bio-product, is enjoying attentions and incoming capitals in the second half of 2021.

Generally, national and some local governments have substantially promoted the degradable plastics market. For places not having such supporting policies are also considering implementing them. As a result, the degradable plastics market and industry development has accelerated these years.

【CCN】 What is the primary problem in the technology and industrialization of China’s degradable plastics?

【Ji Junhui】 The biggest problem in application is that most companies are focusing on low-tech alternatives like garbage bags, shopping bags and packaging bags instead of materials with high technical content such as two-way stretch film and thermoplastic film.

Another problem is pricing. The huge rise of chemical commodity prices in the past two years have made end-users think the prices of degraded plastics are too high, whereas the producers, at the same time, were losing money. Some less competitive producers have been forced to largely reduce their operating rates, even the market demand was still there.

【CCN】 How to promote the rational and healthy development of the industry?

【Ji Junhui】 As an emerging industry, the development of degradable plastics needs multiple support.

First, we need policy support. It is true that international and domestic attentions have been paid to the industry, but further efforts need to be made to transfer national policies to real market demand. Personally, I think the implementation of No. 80 Policy is not satisfactory. The implementation of the policy is the primary task to promote the healthy development of the industry.

Second, it is necessary to establish a good industrial environment. The last two years witnessed global inflation and price increases due to the incoming of large-scale overseas capitals. However, there is a price ceiling for certain low-end products, and the buyers will not accept over high prices. The overall industrial environment is not very favorable.

Third, we should guide the market to accept more environmentally friendly plastic products. Even though biodegradable plastic products are currently high priced, we need to help customers realize that the using of degradable plastic reduces plastic pollution, and it is one of China's ecological civilization constructions. Everyone should consciously and actively pay for the environmental protection.

Fourth, new products and technologies need to be further developed. The degradable plastics chain needs more high-end new products. If high priced raw materials affect the demand, then we should explore approaches to reduce the cost. Another important R&D direction is to improve the performance of the materials to realize the all-natural domain degradation and personalized degradation.

【CCN】 What has your team accomplished in 2021 and what are your focuses in 2022?

【Ji Junhui】 Firstly, we have planned PBAT industrialization projects in Hainan, Henan and Hebei, with the largest capacity reaching 100 thousand t/a. Secondly, we have developed some products according to the market demand. For example, we have undertaken the low-cost degradable plastic products projects in Hainan and Beijing, hoping to reduce the cost of daily shopping bags, garbage bags and other products by 30%. Thirdly, we have also developed some scenario-based products. For instance, the fast-degrading plastic bags, which are mainly for kitchen garbage in Beijing and Shanghai. These plastic bags have a storage period of 4~6 months and will be completely degraded in 3-5 days once they meet food waste or wet waste.

Our works in 2022 will be focused on three directions. Firstly, we will continue to push the project construction in Hainan and Henan, making sure that the former can be commissioned this year and the latter the second half of this year. Secondly, the seawater degradation plastics we developed is planned to be pilot tested in 2022 for the realization of 100 tons’ supply of materials and products. Finally, we will promote the breakthroughs of the functional degradation plastic films such as heat shrinkable film and bi-directional stretch film which we are currently constructing together with Henan Advanced Film Material Research Institute. We hope they can be directly applied by customers, and we also hope this project can improve the whole technology level of degradation plastic products.        

(China Chemical News (CCN) is the Sister magazine of CCR. It is a comprehensive chemical journal in Chinese and also belongs to CNCIC. )