Non-toxic, harmless and degradable? ! The difficult road to the advent of water-soluble plastic bags
Ordinary plastic bags are widely used and extremely difficult to degrade. These "white pollution" remaining in the environment have become a problem for global marine environmental protection. In recent years, many coastal countries have promulgated laws to implement "plastic restriction orders" and "plastic ban orders". So what replace plastic bags? Recently, a Chilean company gave a solution.
Roberto Astete, the general manager of the Chilean company, repeatedly demonstrated the process of dissolving the plastic bag into water after 5 minutes at a press conference in the capital of Santiago, and took the dissolved solution by mouth. Global 800 Many media have reported. As everyone knows, the inventor of this patent is actually Cui Yuefei, a professor at South China University of Technology.
Find it in the crowd
Our team has been committed to researching environmentally friendly plastics since 2002.
The 1990s was a period of great economic development in China, and the demand for plastic materials soared. By the year 2002, some large electrical appliance companies used tens of thousands of tons of plastic each year. They wanted to find plastics with good materials and low cost, but it was difficult to balance the two. They could only add some inexpensive raw materials that were not environmentally friendly.
Beginning in 2002, Cui Yuefei led the team to turn to research and development of environmentally friendly plastics.
Before and after, after about 500 kinds of raw materials were screened, non-toxic and harmless raw materials were finally found to be used in the production of water-soluble plastics. Completed the laboratory verification experiment in 2008
The material Cui Yuefei found, polyvinyl alcohol, is the raw material for the production of water-soluble plastic bags displayed by the Chilean company.
Success after repeated experiments
"In layman's terms, polyvinyl alcohol is also a plastic, but it has no thermoplasticity. Compare the difference between polyvinyl alcohol and ordinary plastics: ordinary plastics reach the melting point after heating, become liquid, and then solidify and form by molds, which are thermoplastic. There is no thermoplastic polymer. Vinyl alcohol has a melting point of 220°C to 230°C. They heat the polyvinyl alcohol, but before reaching the melting point, it begins to decompose at 180°C. When it reaches 190°C, it will not only decompose but also cause violent cross-linking. The equipment is stuck.
Therefore, the Fei team tried their best to study how to make polyvinyl alcohol molded like plastic. They first melted the raw material of polyvinyl alcohol into water and turned it into a liquid, and then flowed it to a drying belt for drying, and then peeled off the dried film, and finally obtained polyvinyl alcohol plastic bags. This method is called the solution casting method, which is a relatively mature PVA film production technology and process at home and abroad.
One of the great features of polyvinyl alcohol is that it is non-toxic and harmless. Foreign material researchers have done a lot of experiments on polyvinyl alcohol, such as using polyvinyl alcohol film to feed fish, four or five months later, there is no effect on the fish. Feed the mice, within 48 hours, 98% of the polyvinyl alcohol can be excreted through the feces of the mice, and the other through the urine of the mice. At the same time, the researchers also conducted experiments on whether polyvinyl alcohol has acute poisoning, mid-term poisoning, long-term chronic poisoning, etc., and found no vomiting, diarrhea, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, reproduction, etc.
Polyvinyl alcohol has another major feature. It can be biodegraded and is an environmentally friendly material.
Seeking conversion
Although the production technology and process of polyvinyl alcohol film are relatively mature, it has large investment, high energy consumption, low production capacity and low efficiency. From successful research and development to completion of technology verification tests, and then to industry incubation, although there is a certain degree of psychological preparation for the "landing" cycle of technology, Cui Yuefei still has not expected the long wait.
Until 2015, Cui Yuefei reached a cooperation with Guangdong Jushi Chemical Co., Ltd. The two parties agreed that the company will be responsible for the initial investment of the project, including the site, personnel, equipment, raw materials, related testing, and certification.
In April 2016, when the first batch of pilot mass-produced raw materials were produced, they happened to meet Chilean Roberto Astete. He said he has been looking for soluble plastics in China for more than two years. Taking into account the company's promotion channels and promotion experience in the US and South American markets, Cui Yuefei decided to cooperate with this Chilean company.
Looking forward to expanding the domestic market
It is understood that Chile consumes 3.4 billion plastic bags per year, which is equivalent to 200 per person per year. The average use time of each plastic bag is about 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and each plastic bag takes more than 400 years to degrade.
At the beginning of July this year, Chile's Constitutional Court supported a "plastic ban" in the commercial sector in a ruling, clearing the way for Chile to become the first "plastic ban" country in South America.
We are now mainly targeting maritime countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Chile, etc. These countries attach great importance to it and have substantive actions. Marine pollution is a serious problem. Approximately 8 million tons of plastic flows into the ocean every year, causing the death of many marine organisms. "Although soluble plastic bags cannot replace all plastic products, they have a bright future."
When it comes to promotion in China, it is difficult to promote with only technology, without suitable prices and market recognition. At present, through technological innovation, the unit price of polyvinyl alcohol plastic bags can be reduced to 1.5 times the price of ordinary plastic bags, but the profit is too thin in market competition, and there are not many companies willing to participate. Moreover, the key is that the concept and environment need to be cultivated. For example, many supermarkets in foreign countries do not carry water for fruits and vegetables, which have not yet reached such standards in China.
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