The problem of environmental pollution caused by refractory plastic waste has become an important issue of global concern. On June 5th, it was the 47th World Environment Day. The UN Environment Agency put forward the theme of “quick fix” and called for a one-off solution. The problem of plastic pollution. China also proposed the theme of 'beautiful China I am the actor' in China this year. It complements it and will be extended until 2020.
In recent years, China's ecological environment quality has continued to improve, but its effectiveness has been unreliable. Since the introduction of the 'plastic limit order' in 2008, the effect has been 'were mixed.' China is now in a conditional and capable window to solve outstanding problems in the ecological environment. It is timely to discuss the governance models and technologies for waste plastics and promote energy conservation and environmental protection.
As the main pollution source of water, soil and sea, hard-to-degrade waste plastics are still the world's 'oldest'. According to UN Environment Agency data, global plastic waste has reached 4.9 billion tons, only 9% have been recycled, and each recovered 1 Tons of plastic can save 3785-7570 liters of gasoline.
In order to promote energy conservation and environmental protection and regulate the production and use of plastic products, China officially introduced the 'plastic limit order' in 2008. How will the effect be achieved after 10 years?
Limited plastic effect has limited effect
“The 'plastic limit order' has a certain effect, but it is not ideal. ' Yuan Dongming, deputy director of the Institute of Enterprise Research of the Development Research Center of the State Council, bluntly stated that the reduction of waste plastics, resources and energy is a long way to go, waste plastic pollution prevention and control will enter the storm. Deep water area.
China is a large country for the production and use of plastics. Waste plastics that need to be recycled every year are more than 40 million tons, and are growing at an annual rate of 8%. According to the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, in 2017, 31 provinces all produced plastic products, 15 The province's production has maintained a positive growth, and recycling is not good, causing white pollution from the city to the countryside and from the mainland to the ocean.
'The state adopted the 'plastic limit order', and some places even adopted a 'forbidden plastic', but they could not restrain themselves. 'For the sake of it? Yuan Dongming told reporters, 'Because the people have demand for plastic. The big agricultural country needs a lot of Using agricultural mulch, supermarkets still need a lot of plastic bags.
Although the National Development and Reform Commission proposed the principle of “restricting batches, substituting one batch, and standardizing one batch”, the situation of waste plastics management in production, circulation, and consumption is still severe.
The 'plastic limit order' is just a solution to some of the problems in consumer behavior. A considerable proportion of waste plastics used in agriculture is not included in this category. In fact, 'plastic war-speed determination' is actually more to protect the living environment. 'City Development and Research of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Pan Jiahua, director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, gave an explanation from another perspective.
Looking at the domestic and international environment, there are clear goals to solve the problem of waste plastics. China has made a low-carbon commitment of 2030, and the Paris Agreement established that the increase in the global mean temperature compared with the pre-industrial level should be kept far below 2°C target.
'In a limited environment, there are not many resources that can be wasted. The declaration of war on plastics does not require plastics. It is also a resource, but it requires technological innovation and new solutions to achieve effective recovery and meet the needs of social development.' Pan Jiahua said.
The processing method is still to be improved
'A recent survey of 71 large and medium-sized cities across the country, plastic waste accounted for about 15% of the total domestic garbage.' Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Jin Yong, Dean of the Institute of Chemical Science and Technology, Tsinghua University believes that plastic products have been in-depth production In all areas of life, the recycling of waste plastic waste is imminent.
The report shows that China's waste plastics have a stock of 1 billion tons, while rapid growth, high recycling costs and low recycling economic value, profitability is not sufficient, and extensive operations in recycling are also likely to cause secondary pollution.
It is understood that for a long time, there are mainly three kinds of waste plastics disposal methods in the world. Landfill, incineration and regeneration granulation methods. Landfilling methods are widely used, but the hidden dangers and hazards are relatively large. They increase the pressure on the use of land resources and are difficult to degrade. The plastics seriously impede the penetration of groundwater, and the additives in plastics cause secondary pollution of the land. The same widely used incineration method makes it difficult to treat the toxic substances produced. The opposition to the construction of waste power plants occurs from time to time. Regeneration granulation methods are also available. The limitation is that a lot of inferior plastic waste can not be used for regeneration and granulation, and wasting water resources is not the ultimate solution.
In this context, the disposal of waste plastics has become the direction that countries are trying to overcome. Yuan Dongming claims that the recycling of waste plastics is a 'systemic project'. On the one hand, it needs to continue to strengthen control from the source, and guide plastic producers to consider recycling. In terms of recovery, efforts were made to establish a recycling system for waste plastics. 'The waste plastics should be clearly defined as renewable resources, and the energy utilization of waste plastics should be taken as an important component of improving China's energy conservation and emission reduction and developing a recycling economy.'
'Energy utilization' is export
'Energy utilization' has become an important way of large-scale recycling of waste plastics. At present, China's technology in this area is gradually becoming mature.
According to reports, the direct recycling of plastics, the main technology is concentrated in three aspects, one is the direct recycling of plastics, through recycling and reuse or modified regeneration technology, wood plastic technology, adding new components, so that plastic has new features. On the one hand, the thermal cracking of plastic film is used to produce fuel oil. In fact, the plastic is heated, catalyzed and cracked to produce fuel oil. Supercritical water splitting technology has a high starting point, high efficiency but high cost. Industrialization. Finally, the use of plastic as an auxiliary fuel can be used blast furnace injection technology, waste plastic and coal co-evolutionary technology, but only to solve a small part of the problem.
'The waste plastic film has a large amount of production, and the pollution is serious. Special attention should be paid. The technology of thermal cracking of waste plastic film to produce fuel oil has the most engineering prospects.'
'How to solve the problem of waste plastics has a very clear path in the industry: 'where does it come from and where does it go'. Plastic is a petroleum product and it is restored to oil. This is a real cycle. ' Fuhai Blue Sky Environmental Technology Li Yong, chairman of the board of directors, told reporters that since the mid-20th century in the 20th century, numerous institutions and individuals in China have explored and studied the problem of waste oil 'oiling', but they have been unable to break through for a long time.
Why is this closed loop so difficult to form? 'This is a directional problem.' Li Yong introduced that in the past using dry distillation technology, low oil output and not environmentally friendly, unsafe. Finally found that the oil cracking process, through heating, cracking can be Waste plastics are completely catalytically cracked into steam, diesel, and kerosene, but they hit a 'stopper.' The raw material used in the petroleum cracking system is crude oil, which is a medium for production, and plastic is a solid medium, and solid media cannot be incorporated into a liquid medium system. In the end, Li Yong and his team have overcome difficulties for nine years to invent flexible plastic technology for waste plastics. At present, this technology has officially landed in Zhuozhou, Hebei. The first industrial production line has passed the environmental impact assessment, and 300 tons of waste plastics will be processed on a daily basis after completion. Built in 2019.
The cost of 1 ton of white garbage to make oil is up to 500 yuan, and about 0.8 ton of oil can be produced. A ton of oil can be sold for about 4,000 yuan. A production line that can process about 300 tons of white garbage daily can only meet 200-300. The amount of a city produced by a population of ten thousand people. 'Li Yong calculated an amount for the recycling of waste plastics.
'The research and development of emerging waste plastics energy-using technologies and equipment, and the industry norms and standards for energy utilization are urgently needed to be supported and established.' Guo Zhongchao, founder of Zhongdao Gongying Co., Ltd., looks forward to the ordering and specialization of waste plastic energy. , Standardization.