On May 5, 2013, a ground-breaking ceremony of a 20,000t/a biological PDO and 50,000t/a PTT program was held by Shenghong Group Co., Ltd. (Shenghong Group). This program is owned by Suzhou Suzhen Biological Engineer Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shenghong Group. The launch of this program enables Shenghong Group to have a whole production chain from biological raw material, PTT polyester to PTT spinning and fabric printing & dyeing, according to CCM’s latest issue of Biomaterials China News 1305.
The newly-launched biological PDO and PTT program is just the first phase of Shenghong Group's whole PDO and PTT program, and is planned to be put into production at the end of 2013, while the second phase with capacities of 40,000t/a PDO and 100,000t/a PTT is expected to enter operation in 2015. By cooperating with Tsinghua University, PDO will be produced by biological method, fermented from glycerol—a by-product of biodiesel, which is different from the raw material of general biological PDO, such as DuPont's PDO.
This program will be perfection and expansion of Shenghong Group’s current PTT business.
PTT fiber is famous as a kind of "memory fiber", but the supply shortage of its core raw material—PDO hasseriously restricted the development of the PTT industry. In June 2011, Shenghong Group’s first domestic PTT production line with a capacity of 30,000t/a entered trial production, allowing the company to become the third one who mastered the core technology of PTT in the world, only after DuPont and Shell. However, the company does not have its own PDO production line, and most of PDO it needed is bought from Shell. According to Mr. Bian, the company’s chief engineer, the outsourced BDO cannot meet the company's production needs. Another industry insider, Mr. Han, also revealed that though Shenghong Group has a large PTT production capacity, its PTT output is far smaller than its capacity due to the supply shortage of PDO.
In the future, after the company’s new program is finished, the raw material bottleneck will be solved, and the newly-constructed PTT production line and the company’s integrated production chain will greatly help the company to win more market share.
Along with the technology innovation and the great development of the biodiesel industry, more domestic enterprises will enter the PDO industry, and China may become one of the largest PDO producers in the future.
In addition to Shenghong Group, Zhangjiagang Glory Biomaterial Co., Ltd. (Glory Biomaterial) also launched a biological PDO program, and the first phase with a capacity of 20,000t/a PDO has entered pilot production in Jan. 2013. Similar to Shenghong Group, Glory Biomaterial also produced PDO from glycerol by cooperating with another university—East China University of Science and Technology.
Table of Contents of Biomaterials China News 1305:
China's PVA market deteriorates continuously in 2012
Shenghong Group launches biological PDO and PTT program
The profit of Global Bio-Chem's polyol chemicals segment decreases sharply in 2012
Rainbow Fine Chemical has a bad performance in 2012
Lenzing constructs a jumbo lyocell fiber production line
China makes new progress in hydrolysis stabilizer development
Development of succinic acid commercial production technology in China
Corn price decreases slowly from Feb. 2013
China's PLA foreign trade improves in March 2013
China's import volume of fresh and dry cassava increases in March 2013
China's import volume and price of castor oil and its derivatives increase in March 2013
Rongsheng Petro Chemical's PTT fiber program delayed
Sulzer undertakes a contract for a PLA production plant in Asia
Coca-Cola launches plant-based bottle in China
Toray succeeds in production of bio-based PBT
Polythene UK successfully launches bio-based polyethylene
Biomaterials China News, with 12 to 14 topics in one issue, published by CCM on 8th every month, will bring you the latest information on the market dynamics, company dynamics, new biomaterials products, new biomaterials technology development, new legislations as well as policies and raw material supply dynamics, which are shaping the significant market intelligence of the industry.
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