On January 5, 2022, SLJ Biotechnology Corporation's newly-built biodegradable plastic PHA production line officially began commercial production.
In the past two years, both China's PBAT and PLA have substantially expanded their production, and now PHA has also joined the degradable plastics track by achieving substantial cost reductions. "In the long run, PHA/PLA/PBAT will coexist and complement each other for a long time. However, with the gradual expansion of the production scale of PHA and the substantial reduction in costs, the market is expected to far exceed PLA and PBAT in the future." JSLJ CTO Dr. Li accepts Hay Think said in an interview.
The production base occupies an area of 130 Mu, which is currently the largest PHA production base in China, with a designed annual production capacity of 30,000 tons. Previously, China's PHA production lines were all 1,000 tons.
The so-called PHA, the English abbreviation of polyhydroxy fatty acid ester, is a new material synthesized by natural microorganisms. It has the performance not inferior to traditional petrochemical plastics and can be completely degraded into water and carbon dioxide in all natural environments. In addition, PHA is produced by microbial fermentation, and the production raw materials used are renewable carbon sources such as vegetable oils and sugars. Therefore, it hardly depends on fossil resources and will not cause additional carbon emissions.
"The world produces close to 300 million tons of plastic waste each year. Nearly 80% of it is landfilled or directly enters the natural environment, and less than 10% of the plastic is recycled, causing serious irreversible damage to soil treatment and the marine environment. PHA performance Excellent, it can be degraded spontaneously in the natural environment and even in the marine environment. However, the research and development of PHA-related strains and process development are international problems. There are only three active manufacturers in the world, and the effective production capacity is less than 10,000 tons. If it can really reduce production costs, it will It is a very valuable thing.
"For every ton of PHA used by customers to replace traditional petrochemical plastics, it is estimated that carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 2.09 tons.
The currently used degradable materials include starch composite materials, PLA, PBAT, PBS, PHA, etc., among which starch composite materials, PLA and PBAT account for the largest proportion. However, starch is a natural material with large performance defects and very limited use range. It is only because of its low price that it accounts for a relatively high proportion. The current industrial development is focused on artificial synthetic materials such as PLA and PBAT.
Among the various technological paths of degradable plastics, the performance of PBAT and PHA are relatively close. Previously, PBAT was able to occupy the largest share of it, mainly due to the relatively easy availability of raw materials and the relatively mature production technology. The production scale of PHA is obviously on the small side, resulting in a much higher unit price than PBAT.
However, even in the current high price situation, PHA has specific market demand. "The current main application of PHA is scenarios that require marine degradation and high bio-based content. The main customers are the world's top 500. Because marine degradation is currently only possible with PHA, while the United States, Europe and Japan all have certain requirements for marine degradation, and Japan even The industry alliance CLOMA has been established, and specific applications include straws, disposable tableware, etc. Examples of high bio-based content include Pepsi`s Lay`s potato chip packaging, Nestlé water bottle packaging, Shiseido daily chemical packaging, etc."
The industrial production technology of PHA developed by JSLJ has successfully reduced the production cost of PHA systematically. Under the 10,000-ton scale, the production cost of PHA will continue to be reduced to the same level as polylactic acid (PLA). Currently, only two foreign companies can manufacture PHA on a large scale.