On October 21st, at the 2018 International Bio-Polyester Conference, Chen Guoqiang, a professor at the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University, said that the chemical nature of plastic waste determines that it will cause serious pollution.
The landfill of plastic waste occupies a large area of land and cannot be degraded for hundreds of years. Chen Guoqiang said that since plastic is a polymer formed by polymerization of monomers, microorganisms in the environment cannot digest the chemical bonds of the linking monomers in plastics. Therefore, plastic cannot be decomposed into a single form. In other words, once plastic is synthesized, there is no turning back. Chen Guoqiang said.
Therefore, if plastic garbage is eaten by wild animals, it will cause animal injury or death; when it is burned, it will produce a lot of toxic gases... It is worth mentioning that plastic waste is the most polluted by the ocean. Every year, 8 million tons of plastics eventually enter the ocean. What is even more frightening is that a large amount of plastic particles will enter the human body through the consumption of seafood, and plastics pose a great threat to people's health.
These are all problems caused by the inability to degrade plastics. Therefore, scientists all over the world are trying to make a substance that has excellent polymer properties like plastic, and can be easily degraded and non-toxic. Biopolyester' offers this possibility.
It is understood that common bio-polyester materials are polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(adipic acid/butylene terephthalate (PBAT). PHA materials can be used under natural conditions. Degradation, non-toxic and harmless to human body and environment. Due to the variety of monomers, polymerization methods and polymer chain lengths are very different, it can produce materials with different material properties, such as common packaging materials, agricultural film. In addition, PHA The market prospects in medicine, cosmetics, animal feed, etc. are also very broad.
In recent years, the basic research and industrialization of new bio-polyester materials represented by PHA has progressed rapidly. 'The biggest obstacle to the further industrialization of bio-polyester materials is the cost. If the technical cost is reduced, everyone will be very willing. Use this material. We are also constantly looking for ways to reduce costs to promote PHA. ' Chen Guoqiang told the Journal of the Chinese Journal of Science and Technology.
In December last year, Chen Guoqiang's first-generation industrial biotechnology has completed the pilot test of PHA industrial production, achieving low-cost PHA mass production without sterilization and continuous continuous fermentation. It can be seen that in the future, bio-polyester materials It may replace traditional plastics and enter thousands of households.
It is reported that the International Bio-Polyester Conference (ISBP) is held every two years. This conference (ISBP2018) is hosted by Tsinghua University, Chen Guoqiang is the chairman of the conference, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering academician Ann-Christine Albertsson and other experts around the biodegradable bio-polyester material. 4. Conducted an academic discussion to help bio-polyester materials go into industrial production.