At the inauguration ceremony of Jiagu Environmental Protection Company, waves of visitors followed.

Half of them are technical personnel of various companies, apparently to analyze and evaluate the value of several "black technologies" of Jiagu environmental protection.

Wang Yuye was busy dealing with government officials, while Qi Zheng wandered among the CEOs of major enterprises, constantly greeting his acquaintances.

"Mr. Ma, Mr. Qiao, I haven't seen you for a long time. As soon as Qi Zheng turned around, he saw Ma Kui from PetroChina and Qiao Anqing from Sinopec, he was stunned at first, and immediately shook hands with them cordially.

"I'm bothering Qi Dong. You are a big satellite, and I can't sit still in the company. Ma Kui walked up with a smile, and asked before all the environmental protection people: "Qi Dong, I heard that Jiagu Environmental Protection will launch the technology of decomposing plastics and bio-based plastic technology, is it true?"

There was a sudden silence around the two, whether it was Qiao Anqing of Sinopec, Mr. Hu of Everbright Environmental Protection, or the CEOs of other environmental protection companies, they all subconsciously pricked up their ears.

Qi Zheng glanced around and said with a smile: "It's true." There are two main directions for plastic waste treatment, one is to discover the key microorganisms and key enzymes with the ability to degrade plastic waste and promote it to large-scale production, and the other is the research and development of biodegradable plastics, mainly bio-based plastics. We have had good luck in Jiagu and have made breakthroughs in both directions at the same time. ”

Hehe, then your luck is really not ordinary, more than one person at the scene slandered.

Qi Zheng didn't care what outsiders thought, he beckoned to call the laboratory boss Chen Jianzhang over and asked him to introduce the specific situation to everyone.

Chen Jianzhang groaned slightly, and in the burning eyes of everyone, he talked eloquently: "...... The working principle of deplasticizer is to use two enzymes to combine with the chemical bonds in the PET molecule that connect terephthalate and ethylene glycol, and break them to break down PET into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Subsequently, the deplasticizers further digested the two substances and degraded them into small molecules that can be reabsorbed and utilized by other organisms......"

"How do you solve the problem of degradation stability and efficiency of bacteria?" asked Song Chuanren, chief technologist of Everbright Environmental Protection.

Chen Jianzhang said lightly: "After we synthesized, screened and compared a large number of mutant versions, we finally cultivated a strengthened version of the deplasticizer, which has a maximum working temperature of 76 °C, and it only takes 24 hours to decompose 1000 grams of PET plastic at room temperature, and the decomposition efficiency is as high as 95%......"

Song Chuanren swallowed with difficulty.

Before he came, he had already made up some information on similar international research. It is said that researchers in the island country use bacteria to degrade PET plastic, and it takes about 6 weeks at 30°C to completely degrade a piece of PET the size of a fingernail. In contrast, Jiagu's plastic-deplasticizing bacteria are simply heavenly!

Song Chuanren fell into a state of thought, and Qiao Anqing of Sinopec asked anxiously: "Professor Chen, are your long plastic plants used in conjunction with plastic-deplasticizing bacteria?"

Chen Jianzhang shook his head: "It can be used in conjunction with each other, or it can be planted alone." The plant with long plastic is actually switchgrass ......"

"Switchgrass, I learned that a company in the United States announced a few years ago that it had cultivated a plant that could grow plastic particles, and it seems to be ...... switchgrass as well," someone in the crowd responded.

"That's right. Switchgrass is a wild plant native to the American continent. The vitality is extremely strong, saline-alkali land, low-lying land, Gobi, these harsh environments where ordinary plants cannot survive, but switchgrass lives very moist. Many scientists prefer to use it to produce biofuels, and our laboratory mainly uses it to produce plastics. ”

"Through genetic engineering, switchgrass mutations produce proteins related to the production of plastic microorganisms, thereby changing the biochemical reaction process inside the plant, so that the polysaccharides and starch inside the plant can be directly converted into granular plastics. In a way, you can think of it as a natural bio-based plastic reactor. ”

Qiao Anqing and Ma Kui glanced at each other and asked, "The main component of granular plastic is ......"

"Polylactic acid. Chen Jianzhang paused and emphasized: "Natural polylactic acid can be rapidly degraded in nature. ”

Those who know how to do it can't help but widen their eyes.

Among the bio-based plastics, the characteristics of polylactic acid are closest to those of petroleum-based plastics, and it is the leading variety in the bio-based plastic family.

Polylactic acid in the industry is a biodegradable thermoplastic polyester obtained by chemical synthesis by using corn, wheat, cassava and other starches as the initial raw materials, decomposed by enzymes to obtain glucose, then fermented by lactic acid bacteria to become lactic acid, and finally chemically synthesized.

See, the main raw material for the manufacture of polylactic acid is corn, and it is inevitable that it will fall into the question of "competing with people for food". Therefore, the industry is also studying the use of cellulose raw materials such as leaves and rhizomes, thinned wood, and biomass waste such as wet kitchen waste as raw materials to make polylactic acid.

But no one can compare to Jiagu Hui's skills - people directly obtain plastic pellet raw materials from plants in a sustainable manner.

Chen Jianzhang also thoughtfully explained its advantages: "The stability of plasticized switchgrass has been tested for many generations, and the overall cost of plastic depends on the planting area, according to our estimates, after large-scale planting, the production cost of polylactic acid is expected to be reduced to one-tenth of the traditional method." ”

"Ten ten?" exclaimed.

"Traditional methods?" someone smiled wryly.

The development of polylactic acid technology is a hot spot in the plastics industry, but in Jiagukou, this is already a "traditional" method, and the changes of the times are really unpredictable.

But there is one thing that everyone agrees, if the production cost of polylactic acid can really be reduced to one-tenth, other production methods are undoubtedly "traditional" methods.

You know, the use of plants to grow plastic is not new at all. To some extent, natural rubber is actually a type of plastic. However, natural plastics have a long cycle and low yield, and after scientists have developed fossil plastics synthesized by polymers, they have gradually occupied the leading role of our daily plastics due to the greatly reduced cost.

But the new bio-based plastics are different. Like polylactic acid, the production cost is high, even the largest market in the European Union, it depends on the state to give subsidies to biodegradable plastics and other preferential policies to promote.

As with all industrial products, the trajectory of bio-based plastics should be: reduce costs - open the market - increase consumption - scale expansion - continue to reduce costs. Clearly, cost reduction is at the forefront of this trajectory.

In industrial products, 30% is a barrier. One-tenth, which is equivalent to a 30% reduction in cost, is definitely not a "promising", but "whoever misses it is a stupid hat".

Qi Zheng sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and smiled.

Others, however, fell into unspeakable embarrassment.

Because of this staggering figure, the representatives did not know what to say or what price to offer.

If the price is too low, it is equivalent to being bored, and if the price increases, is the reason not enough just based on Chen Jianzhang's introduction?

After a few minutes of silence, Ma Kui of PetroChina turned to Qi Zheng and asked, "Dong Qi, we want to have a deeper understanding, I wonder if we can visit the test in Jiagu?"

Qi Zheng pondered for a few seconds, and finally nodded, "Yes." I'll let Lao Chen arrange it for you. ”

The satellite has been released, whether it will fall or enter orbit normally, and let them see for themselves.

......