Scale production of corn-based plastics (4/13/2008)

China annually consumes more than 20 million tons of plastic products, which are mainly produced from petroleum. The oil-based undegradable plastics increasingly put pressures on the country's environment and natural resources. To address the problem, people turn to the technologies that could manufacture plastics with plant fiber and starch.

With seven-year joint efforts of researchers and engineers from the CAS Changchun Institute for Applied Chemistry and Hisun Group, a demonstration project to manufacture polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable corn-based plastic, has recently been put in operation in Taizhou, a coastal city of southeast China's Zhejiang Province.

With an annual capacity of 5,000 tons, the production facility boasts the largest of its kind in China and second in the world. As their qualities are on a par with that of Cargill Dow, a US giant in the field, the products are welcome on overseas markets.

PLA is produced from corn through fermentation and polymerization. The outstanding feature of such plastics is environment-friendly as they can be easily degraded into water and carbon dioxide.

Experts say that the success is of special socio-economic significance because it not only breaks down the green trade barriers imposed by developed countries, but also promotes China's efforts in the in-depth processing of the country's massive farming yields, reduction the national tension caused by the over-reliance on petroleum imports and providing a final resolution to the chronic white pollution plaguing the country for so long a time.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

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