China’s carbon dioxide-based plastic production technology is being promoted

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In early February 2009, the 3,000-ton/year production facility for converting carbon dioxide into biodegradable plastics, funded by CNOOC Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., was successfully commissioned and began producing qualified products. The total investment in this project was 152 million yuan, and construction began in July 2007. This project utilizes the patented technology for producing biodegradable plastics from carbon dioxide, developed independently by the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences; CNOOC Chemical Co., Ltd. is responsible for the construction of the facility and the management of production operations. The project makes full use of the resources such as water, electricity, and steam available from the existing facilities in the Dongfang Industrial Park, using the carbon dioxide emitted by these facilities as raw material. For every ton of plastic produced by this project, 0.5 tons of carbon dioxide are consumed. To date, CNOOC has identified natural gas reserves of around 2 trillion cubic meters in the Yinggehai Basin in the South China Sea, located near this project (70% of which contains carbon dioxide). The successful commissioning of this project will open up new avenues for the utilization of carbon dioxide generated by natural gas projects. According to Yaha Consulting, with the commissioning of this project, the number of plastic production facilities in China that use carbon dioxide as a raw material has reached 4. The 3,000-ton/year demonstration production line for fully biodegradable carbon dioxide copolymers operated by Inner Mongolia Mengxi Group, which also utilizes technology from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been able to operate on a long-term basis. Mengxi Group plans to build a similar production line with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons. In 2007, the 10,000-ton per year carbon dioxide-based plastic production line of Sinoceram Chemical Co., Ltd., which utilized technology from the Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, began operating on a regular basis. At present, Zhongke Jinlong has achieved a production capacity of 20,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide resin. In addition, Henan Tianguan Group’s industrial production line for fully biodegradable plastics with a capacity of 5,000 tons per year, which utilizes technology from Sun Yat-sen University, has also been put into operation. This line makes use of carbon dioxide produced as a by-product in the alcohol manufacturing process, and Tianguan Group already has a production capacity of 500,000 tons per year for fuel ethanol. Yahua Consulting believes that the widespread adoption of carbon dioxide-based plastic production technology will provide new approaches for reducing carbon emissions in our country. The combination of IGCC power generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) will enable both improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. Large-scale production of biodegradable plastics using enriched carbon dioxide can enrich the product portfolio of IGCC cogeneration systems