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The first phase of Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Materials Co., Ltd.’s 10,000-ton capacity polyglycolic acid (PGA) production project has begun trial production. Author/Source: Modern Coal Chemical Industry; Date: July 30, 2020; Clicks: 114. Recently, the first phase of this 10,000-ton capacity PGA production project built by Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Materials Technology Co., Ltd. started trial production in the Jiuyuan Industrial Park, marking another significant step forward in the development of the new materials industry in that area. With this development, Baotou now possesses the capability to produce biodegradable plastics. In the exhibition hall of Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Materials Technology Co., Ltd., Deputy General Manager Liu Menghui pointed to a small bottle and explained to the reporters, “What’s inside this bottle are the polyglycolic acid particles that we produce in the end.” After a series of processing steps, it can be turned into biodegradable shopping bags, layers in beverage bottles, as well as tableware such as knives, forks, and straws that appear on our tables. Unlike ordinary plastics, these products can be completely degraded under natural conditions; they are non-toxic and harmless to the environment, making them highly environmentally friendly. ” The 10,000-ton polyglycolic acid (PGA) project involves a synthetic polymer material with excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility. Unlike traditional polymer materials with stable properties such as plastics and rubbers, polyglycolic acid gradually degrades over time, eventually turning into water and carbon dioxide that are harmless to humans, animals, plants, and the natural environment. Therefore, it can be widely used in various fields such as oil and gas extraction, medical sutures, materials for fracture fixation, tissue engineering scaffolds, as well as in medicine, agriculture, forestry, food packaging, and more. However, on a global scale, degradable materials such as polyglycolic acid have always been able to be produced in large quantities only in the United States and Japan; domestic demand for these materials relies almost entirely on imports. In order to break foreign technological monopolies, Shanghai Pujing Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. has been independently developing the \"syngas-to-glycolic acid technology\" with full intellectual property rights since 2010, enabling the production of glycolic acid crystal products with a purity of over 99.6%. In 2018, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Materials Technology Co., Ltd., invested 550 million yuan to build a factory in Jiuyuan District. Using coal-based syngas produced by Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. as raw material, the company manufactured polyglycolic acid through eight processing steps including esterification, carbonylation, distillation, and polymerization; this facility also became part of the extension project for the coal-based olefins industry chain. “In the first phase, we will achieve a production capacity of 1,500 tons of polyglycolic acid; once all phases of the project are completed, the production capacity will reach 10,000 tons. At that point, we will be able to establish a complete industrial chain that spans from raw material syngas to high-quality biodegradable materials, allowing us to maintain control over the entire chain – which gives us a significant competitive advantage and broad market prospects. ”Liu Menghui said.