01

From "industrial MSG" to "green engines," why is diethylene glycol suddenly on fire?

Diethylene glycolic acid, also known as amber acid, sounds strange, but it has made its way into the three fields of pharmaceutical intermediates, food additives, and degradable plastics. Together with 1,4-butylene glycol, it is the "binuclear raw material" for the production of polyethylene terephthalate succinic acid (PBS), and PBS is one of the bio-degradable plastics supported by the state. When the "double carbon" goal forced the transformation of traditional chemical industry, succinic acid was on the C position - green production, high value-added, and large-scale became its brightest label.

02

Why is China's succinic acid industry characterized by "small scale and fragmentation," with 15 factories and 15 different production processes?

There are currently about 15 diethylene acid enterprises in China, and the mainstream technology is still electrochemical law, and they generally face "three mountains": small capacity, high energy consumption, and large emissions. To break the impasse, a different approach had to be found, and two new technological routes quickly gained momentum - helium-hydrogen hydrolysis and bioferment.

Synadenum plus Hydrogen Hydrolysis: Turning "waste gas" into "raw material"

On May 19, 2021, the "100,000-ton-per-year succinic acid production process package via hydrogenation and hydrolysis of maleic anhydride," independently developed by Dalian Petrochemical Research Institute of China Sinopec, passed review by the Ministry of Science and Technology, securing independent intellectual property rights. The technical route takes cishydride as the starting point, produces bisphosphonate through hydrogen hydrolysis, by-product alcohols can be recycled, the waste discharge is below the national standard limit, and the product indicators are also better than the national standard excellent products.

More critically, since the project was initiated by the Dalian Institute in 2009, it has overcome two major challenges: concentrated exothermic reactions and the tendency to form hot spots. The institute has successfully completed long-term operation trials and holds five Chinese invention patents. At present, it is accelerating the construction of industrial plants, and synchronously layout the complete set of technologies of PBST biodegradable polyester, leaving enough capacity for downstream modification and products.

Bioferment: Allow starch to "grow" acetic acid

Shandong Landing has scaled up "test tube fermentation" in the laboratory into an industrial production line: using renewable starch sugar as a carbon source, microorganisms fix CO2 while producing, and energy consumption is reduced by more than 30% compared to electrochemical methods. The continuous reactor + food grade raw materials makes the product quality batch difference less than 0.5%, the molecular weight distribution is narrower, and downstream polyester filament is easier to control.

Even better, this route turns useless CO2 into a valuable carbon skeleton, providing a new "resource" route for carbon reduction. Tests by polyester users at home and abroad have shown that the impact strength of polyester films prepared with biotin dioxide has increased by 12% and weather resistance has increased one grade.

03

Demand surges, capital floods, who wins next stop?

Biodegradable materials have been written into the national new materials strategy, and the capacity expansion rate has exceeded 30% in the past two years. Modified processes, product technology and recycling have become new hot spots. In the first half of 2021, the industry held two summits in Foshan and Suzhou, bringing the demand and supply sides of technology originally scattered among universities, research institutes and enterprises to the same table.

Whoever can meet the four dimensions of cost, capacity, environmental protection and certification at the same time can take the next wave of orders. Whether it is the "technological breakthrough" in maleic anhydride hydrogenation or the "raw material revolution" in biological fermentation, both point to the same answer: elevating succinic acid from a "supporting role" to a "leading role," and providing a replicable and scalable "Chinese solution" for China's green transformation of the chemical industry.