Donghua Technology: The journey of scientific research and reclamation of degradable materials

　　Recently, Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Donghua Technology) and Xinjiang Tianye (Group) Co., Ltd. jointly invested and established Donghua Tianye New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Donghua Tianye) has developed a new environmental protection dust screen with fully biodegradable new material polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) as the main raw material, and the research and development of PBAT is an important measure for Donghua Technology to actively enter the new field of white pollution control.

　　As a member of state-owned central enterprises, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Donghua Technology took the new material industry as the key direction of strategic layout and scientific and technological innovation, actively engaged in the cause of white pollution control, and laid out the upstream and downstream industrial chains. In 2021, Donghua Tianye was established to build a biodegradable material PBAT project. In the same year, the China Research Institute of Chemical and Environmental Protection (hereinafter referred to as the Institute) settled in Hefei, Anhui Province, taking environmentally friendly green new materials as one of the important directions of research and development. So far, the R&D team of the institute has started the research and development of PBAT high-efficiency catalysts.

　　Independent exploration and development of a catalyst for Donghua people

　　In March 2021, the institute received a seemingly impossible but necessary task - to complete the synthesis process improvement of PBAT high-efficiency catalysts within one year, and realize the smooth production of Donghua Tianye's fully biodegradable material PBAT project.

　　PBAT is a thermoplastic fully biodegradable plastic, which is one of the degradable materials with the best application prospects in the current biodegradable plastic research, and can be widely used in disposable plastic products such as packaging materials, catering utensils, sanitary products, and mulch films. The development and use of new high-efficiency industrial catalysts is an effective measure to improve product quality, reduce costs, and achieve environmentally friendly processes, but in industrial applications, PBAT high-efficiency catalysts become the most difficult problem. At that time, the existing PBAT catalysts on the market were either too expensive to transfer, or the technology was not transferred, and the activity and stability of the catalyst could not be verified.

　　"There is no ready-made one, so we will explore independently and develop our own catalyst." Qian Jun, vice president of the research institute, said that the one-year time limit and ultra-high standards made the entire R&D team feel pressure. From catalyst R&D to small-scale and pilot tests, and then to the final application to the production of industrial plants, and the successful start-up of qualified products, it is a series of extremely complex processes, and the time really reserved for the R&D team is only 6 months. At the same time, the research and development of catalysts are carried out simultaneously with the project construction, and the development and industrial application of PBAT high-efficiency catalysts must be completed within the project construction period. Once the time is delayed, if the construction cannot be started after the construction, the enterprise will face huge economic losses.

　　There is no turning back from the bow, and since you have decided to accept the challenge, you have to break the boat. Through a large number of research and reading technical literature, after a large number of comparative tests with various PBAT catalysts on the market, and digesting and absorbing the advantages of various existing catalysts in the industry, Donghua Technology's PBAT green and efficient catalyst was officially born.

　　"Compared with other catalysts, our self-developed catalyst has two advantages, one is high activity, and the other is simple configuration process, which greatly reduces production costs." Qian Jun said.

　　Perseverance "coffee beans" become "snow white pearls"

　　There is a huge difference between the development of industrial catalysts and scientific experiments in laboratories. After completing the design and polymerization process of PBAT green and efficient catalysts, whether it can be successfully applied to engineering practice and achieve the goal of smooth start-up has become another challenge faced by the R&D team.

　　In June 2021, Donghua Technology and Tianye Group jointly established a biodegradable new material technology innovation center in Xinjiang as a pilot base for PBAT.

　　Dr. Sun Xiangbin, who had just graduated from Hefei University of Technology with a major in materials chemical engineering, still remembers the scene of the first pilot test. The PBAT pilot test started at 9 a.m. on December 1, 2021, and everything from esterification to polymerization was carried out in an intense and orderly manner. Everyone's heart is apprehensive: Does the catalyst work? Can the process be opened? Can PBAT particles be formed eventually? Everything is unknown. Waiting for the output is like opening a blind box, and you never know what the particles will look like.

　　At 11 o'clock in the evening of the same day, after 12 hours of waiting, the R&D team felt half cold when they saw the device transmitting red particles like "coffee beans". Because the most significant feature of high-quality PBAT particles is that they are snow-white throughout, it is obvious that the PBAT particles produced this time do not meet the standards.

　　But for project leader Liu Zheng, this seemingly unsatisfactory result is the norm, because it marks the first time that the R&D team has opened up the PBAT pilot process.

　　Pilot testing is boring, requires a lot of patience and perseverance, and can face setbacks, failures and various risks at any time. From the design scheme, formal simulation to the summary of experience, a complete pilot test takes at least 2 to 3 days. In more than 6 months in Xinjiang, the R&D team has completed more than 20 complete pilot tests.

　　"It was a time that I will never forget. Every day, we constantly adjust the various subtle data in the experiments, observe the color of the particles, and test the performance of the particles again and again. Liu Zheng said.

　　The R&D team started from scratch, designed the plan by itself, communicated with the equipment manufacturer, and independently developed a set of circulating water system including chilled water station and chiller, which effectively controlled the circulating water of the condenser and ensured the stability of the pilot test.

　　In March 2022, after countless polymerization tests, the device finally succeeded in producing PBAT particles like oval "snow-white pearls".

　　Have the courage to climb and usher in the glory highlight moment

　　On June 20, 2022, the fully biodegradable material PBAT project was successfully started at one time, and the R&D team finally ushered in their glorious highlight moment. After third-party authoritative certification and testing, the PBAT particles produced by Donghua Technology are better than the national standard in terms of color and performance.

　　"The R&D goals of enterprises and universities are not consistent, and the R&D of universities is guided by scientific papers and mechanism research, while the R&D of technology companies is aimed at researching products that meet expectations." Wang Yan, president of the research institute and senior technical director of Donghua Technology, said. In the face of the extremely bad weather in Xinjiang, the R&D team faced all kinds of problems in the experiment with an innovative and realistic attitude, coordinated the resources of universities, design, procurement and other parties, and ran the construction site, project and supplier by itself.

　　At present, the PBAT high-efficiency green catalyst developed by Donghua Technology has obtained a scientific and technological achievement appraisal in Anhui Province and an invention patent authorization, and at the same time, a unique formula and technology have been developed through downstream modification, which are applied to shopping bags and garbage bags for daily use. Donghua Technology, an industrial development with both economic value and social value, has begun to take shape.

　　Author: Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. Liu Qianyue Wang Ying