High-end, green, intelligent, see how the chemical fiber industry to win the future with strength

As the most important raw material in the textile industry, chemical fiber not only meets the needs of the development of the textile industry in terms of volume, but also is an important driving force for the science and technology, fashion and green development of the textile industry. Around the textile industry's "14th Five-Year Plan" key tasks, the chemical fiber industry will build a solid textile industry foundation from the raw material side, lead the textile industry chain value enhancement, take the initiative in the high-end development of new fiber materials, intelligent digital development, green low-carbon transformation and development, and win the future with strength.

In order to improve the innovation and development level of the industrial chain, accelerate the intelligent digital transformation of the industry and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the development mode, the 2021 China International Chemical Fiber Conference held recently held three forums, namely, the high-end development Forum of chemical fiber industry, the green Development Forum of chemical fiber industry, and the intelligent development Forum of chemical fiber industry. Experts and entrepreneurs from industry associations, research institutes, enterprises were invited to introduce the future development focus and development path from their own perspectives, in order to bring certain innovative ideas to the industry enterprises.

Chemical fiber industry high-end development Forum

Build a solid textile industry foundation from the raw material side

At present, new fiber materials have become the focus of global science and technology development, and scientific and technological developed countries and regions have carried out layout in this field.

At the forum on high-end development of chemical fiber industry, Wang Yuping, director of the National Advanced Functional Fiber Innovation Center, elaborated the future development trend from the perspective of new fiber materials. She believes that new fiber materials are the key to supporting intelligent, green and sustainable development, and the future should focus on trends such as "green", "intelligent" and "ecological chain". Specifically, the first is the development and application of "green" fiber products such as raw liquid coloring fibers, bio-based chemical fibers, and recycled fibers, as well as new opportunities, new markets and new business models brought by new technologies such as energy recovery and carbon dioxide reuse, self-healing complexes, blockchain and distributed ledger, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence. Second, device integration on textile materials in the fields of intelligent color change, flexible intelligent sensing, efficient intelligent deformation, energy conversion and storage; At the same time, make full use of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other cutting-edge technologies to empower the fiber new material industry; Third, the innovation and development of new fiber materials need to build a strong ecological chain, to "strengthen the innovation chain with the industrial chain, empower the industrial chain with the innovation chain, and integrate the innovation chain with the ecological chain."

Textile machinery is the foundation of China's textile industry and the important support of the whole textile industry chain.  During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the textile machinery industry will focus on implementing six key projects such as textile green production equipment, textile intelligent processing equipment, high-tech textile equipment, textile enterprise intelligent manufacturing upgrade, textile machinery common technology, and textile machinery standard system, promote the development of 10 subdivisions, and promote the advanced industrial base and modernization of the industrial chain. Promote textile equipment for the future textile industry to expand into a modern industrial emerging resource industry to make equipment support.

Since the 21st century, creating a green and sustainable living environment has become the primary goal of the world. Zhu Jianfei, Minister of Brand Department of Guowang Gaoke Fiber Co., LTD., said that green synthetic fibers, including regenerative chemical fibers represented by recycled cellulose fibers, recycled polyester, recycled nylon, etc., low-carbon synthetic fibers represented by low-temperature dyeing polyester, stock solution coloring polyester, antimony-free metal polyester, etc., bio-based fibers represented by PLA, PTT, PA56, etc. It is increasingly attracting the attention of international terminal brands. He stressed that the supervision of recycled fiber products is very key to the healthy and orderly development of the industry, and the trusted platform of green fiber products to be released by the industry association can achieve the traceability of recycled fiber products and meet the green product standards of the target brand of the terminal.

Jin Gaoling, deputy Secretary-General and director of the market promotion Department of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, said that brand development has become an important starting point of national economic transformation and upgrading, rising to the height of national strategy, and providing a rare historical opportunity and policy guarantee for the brand development of China's chemical fiber industry. If chemical fiber products want to be brands, they first need to have technological advancement, and combine with social responsibility and terminal consumer demand. Around the development of chemical fiber brand, she suggested: first improve product brand awareness, build a brand management system; Understand the product market positioning and promote the close integration of the industrial chain; Enrich product promotion mode, extend brand influence; Combine brand building with social responsibility to build brand cultural connotation; In addition, it is necessary to strengthen brand management talents and team building.

Coal to ethylene glycol technology uses relatively rich coal resources in China instead of oil route to produce ethylene glycol, which relies heavily on imports in China, and has an important impact on the development of China's energy industry, modern coal chemical technology and polyester industry. Yao Yuangen, a researcher at the Fujian Institute of Material Structure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discussed the development direction of coal-to-ethylene glycol technology and industry around the current application of coal-to-ethylene glycol products in related polyester enterprises and the influencing factors on the quality of downstream polyester products.

Ye Guangdou, professor of Sichuan University, introduced the development status of continuous basalt fiber in China. He suggested that the industry should strengthen basic technology research, break through the key core technology of continuous basalt fiber raw materials and the pool kiln method, large leakage plate, intelligent fiber production technology, strengthen fiber performance and application research, carry out the research of basalt melt preparation iteration technology, rationally layout bigger and stronger the whole industrial chain, and promote the continuous basalt fiber industry to achieve high-quality development.

Carbon neutrality puts forward new requirements for the development of the industry. The lightweight characteristics of carbon fiber and its composite materials play an important role in promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction, while carbon neutrality requires green energy such as wind power, photovoltaic and other industries have a large demand for carbon fiber, but the production of carbon fiber itself needs to consume a lot of electricity. With the improvement of wind power technology, its cost is getting lower and lower. Can wind power be used to reduce the cost of carbon fiber? Yan Bing, industry mentor of the Material Department of Suzhou University, proposed in his speech a new energy ecosystem, in this system, carbon fiber can be used as wind power blades, wind power hydrogen production, promote hydrogen energy vehicles forward, while the demand for refueling stations increases, it is necessary to build more distributed fan power stations for hydrogen production. Hydrogen cars need carbon fiber, wind power needs carbon fiber. This mutual promotion can promote the growth of volume and the reduction of cost, which is a perfect industrial chain for the carbon fiber industry.

Chemical fiber industry green development Forum

Explore the practical path to achieve the goal of "double carbon"

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, under the guidance of green development and double carbon goals, the chemical fiber industry not only shares the social responsibility of green manufacturing and ecological protection with the whole textile industry chain, but also independently undertakes the important mission of developing diversified biological raw material resources, improving the recycling level of fiber products, and reducing carbon emissions of industry enterprises.

At the forum on the green development of chemical fiber industry, Wang Huaping, a researcher and doctoral supervisor of Donghua University's School of Materials, introduced the technical route and industrial development direction of bio-based chemical fibers. He introduced that as of 2019, the total production capacity of bio-based chemical fibers has reached 5 million tons/year, and bio-based synthetic fibers, new bio-based cellulose fibers, and Marine bio-based fibers have achieved large-scale production, and the application technology is mature, and the application field is constantly expanding. The development trend of bio-based fibers in the future will revolve around integration and development, including integration and innovation of technology, integration and development of bio-based fibers and green fibers, integration and development of green manufacturing, integration and development of industrial chain innovation and chain, integration and development of terminal brands, integration and development of recycling and regeneration, integration and development of the whole life cycle, and sustainable integration and development.

Plastic particles are an unavoidable problem for the sustainable development of the chemical fiber industry, and clothing washing and wearing are an important source of fiber microplastics in the environment. This fiber microplastics is non-degradable, causing great pressure on the ecological environment and serious harm to human health. Li Guang, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University, introduced several current strategies to inhibit or intercept the release of fiber microplastics from clothing. She pointed out that the discharge of laundry wastewater is the main way for fiber microplastics to enter the environment, in order to inhibit the production of fiber microplastics during the washing process, filters can be added to the water outlet of the washing machine and laundry bags can be used. The surface of nylon fabric is coated, and the surface functionalization of nylon fabric can be treated with modified pectin.

In response to the call of the national carbon peak and carbon neutrality goal, reducing the carbon emission intensity and total amount of the chemical fiber industry is an important development task for a long period of time in the future. Liu Shiyang, Project manager of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, analyzed the key points of carbon emission measurement and the influencing factors of carbon footprint in the chemical fiber industry, and explained the relevant results of carbon emission research in the chemical fiber industry.

At the enterprise level, the influencing factors of carbon accounting mainly include three aspects: energy use intensity and total amount, energy structure and product structure. The accounting boundary of a product's carbon footprint is generally from the acquisition of raw materials, the production of energy and materials, the manufacture and use of products, to the treatment and final disposal of products at the end of life. At present, according to the purpose of the enterprise, the accounting boundary is often defined as "cradle to door" and "door to door". "Cradle to Gate" encompasses the raw material acquisition and manufacturing stages. "Door to door" covers only the manufacturing stage (regardless of the manufacturing of the raw material and its environmental load).

Zheng Guo, vice chairman of the Industrial Surfactant Committee of the China Fine Chemical Association and member of the Oil Additives Branch of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, introduced that after years of development, China has researched and developed dozens of different fiber varieties of oil agents with independent intellectual property rights, and achieved mass production and application. However, the output and varieties still can not meet the rapid development requirements of the chemical fiber industry, still need to import a large amount of oil every year, especially in the filament fiber (POY, FDY) oil, about 80% of the market in the hands of Japanese and German companies, almost monopolized by foreign countries. In this regard, China still needs to focus on solving the problem of imported oil used in functional fibers for the domestic chemical fiber industry.

The sustainable development of the industry is closely related to the active performance of individual enterprises' social responsibilities and the promotion of green and low-carbon development. At the forum, the heads of enterprises from Satelli, Quanzhou Haitian and Zhejiang Beauty shared the experience and achievements of chemical fiber enterprises in green development exploration practice on the topics of "construction of sustainable vision of chemical fiber enterprises", "Exploration and sharing of green fiber application" and "Research on cutting-edge technology of waste textile recycling".

Sun Jian, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at Sateri, introduced the content of Sateri's 2030 Sustainability Vision, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 in terms of climate and ecosystem protection. Aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In terms of closed-loop cleaner production, through the establishment of a clean closed-loop production system, the emission of harmful substances is reduced to the greatest extent, and we strive to achieve zero-harm production by 2030. In terms of innovation and circular economy, the circular economy is promoted through value chain innovation and multi-party collaboration to create a circular artificial cellulose fiber industry chain. In terms of inclusive growth, we strive to ensure the health and safety of our employees and communities, and create shared value and prosperity through caring and empowerment.

Since the green fiber label and product certification work carried out by China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, the number of green fiber certification enterprises has continued to expand, and with the development of green consumption concept, the application field of green fiber has also continued to expand. As the first downstream enterprise in China to obtain green fiber products certification, Su Yubi, general manager of Quanzhou Haitian Material Technology Co., Ltd. introduced the development of Haitian green fiber products and their products at the forum. From the perspective of product types, at present, Haitian materials' green fiber products include: recycled polyester/recycled nylon fiber, color masterbatch environmental protection fiber, bio-based environmental protection fiber. ecorona is a recycled product made of recycled polyester bottle flakes by special processing process, which has been successfully applied to various products of Haitian and won high praise from customers.

The technical problems of waste textile recycling have been concerned. China is a big country of textile production, but the recycling rate of waste textiles is low. The traditional physical recycling method can not realize the permanent recycling of waste textiles, and the existing chemical method can not meet the development needs of high-value recycled polyester products. Zhejiang Beauty New Materials Co., Ltd. uses waste polyester materials such as waste clothing and scraps as raw materials to produce high quality, multi-functional, traceable and permanent recycling polyester fibers. Guan Jun, deputy chief engineer of Zhejiang Beauty New Materials Co., LTD., introduced that Beauty took the lead in independent innovation of 10,000-ton chemical recycling polyester industrial production demonstration line, and its technical route is to achieve high-value recycling of waste textiles by alcohol hydrolysis - transesterification. The core technologies include: pretreatment technology, recycled DMT synthesis, refining technology, high-purity DMT preparation, by-product utilization. The technical route has the advantages of convenient purification of regenerated monomers, wide applicability of raw materials, mild reaction conditions and low equipment requirements.

Chemical fiber industry intelligent development Forum

Leading the industry to accelerate the development of intelligence and digitalization

In today's world, based on the rapid development of information technology, intelligence is showing a booming trend, which is bringing about a profound change in production, life style and economic society in human history. In recent years, the chemical fiber industry has firmly grasped the development opportunities, vigorously promoted the intelligent development, and driven the chemical fiber industry to achieve a new round of upgrading and high quality.

In recent years, the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association has strengthened its efforts to guide the intelligent development of the industry year by year, and the achievements made are also very significant. Entering the "14th Five-Year Plan", in the face of technological changes and new business models such as the industrial Internet, the fractured growth of industry leading enterprises, the establishment of modern industrial systems and new industrial structures, chemical fiber enterprises will pay more attention to promoting intelligent and digital transformation. Wan Lei, director of the Science and Technology Department of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, introduced that in the "Fourteenth Five-Year Development Guidance of the chemical fiber industry" being prepared, the industry will accelerate the intelligent digital transformation, build the intelligent manufacturing standard system of the chemical fiber industry, improve the key technology and software level of intelligent manufacturing, and improve the level of intelligent service of enterprises.

At present, the field of data security is faced with the challenges of security attacks, data security management lag, and security protection data failure. Beijing Gu 'an World Technology Co., Ltd. has developed an implementation method based on the Gather DSG framework to balance business needs and risks, deploy data security products, and formulate a unified policy for all products. Based on the system, Zhang Bing, IT consulting partner of Beijing Gu 'an World Technology Co., Ltd. introduced the method of comprehensively and systematically mastering data security governance.

Ye Xuanchen, deputy director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Center of the East China Branch of the China Electronic Technology Standardization Institute, read the intelligent manufacturing capability maturity model standard. The standard is mainly aimed at manufacturing enterprises, system solution providers and authorities, aiming to solve complex system problems with maturity theory, and provide decision-making support for authorities with objective data.

As a young engineer, Wang Kun, a senior engineer at Shanxi Jingwei Chemical Fiber Machinery Co., LTD., introduced the LEGO concept into equipment manufacturing. Starting from the concept of digital twins, he guides everyone to understand simulation devices in order to provide researchers with greater imagination and operation space. To this end, Wang Kun introduced a modular spinning intelligent experimental equipment like LEGO. At present, the modular spinning intelligent experimental equipment has been applied in Jiangsu New Vision Advanced Functional Fiber Innovation Center.

Fu Shaohai, a professor at the School of Textile Science and Engineering of Jiangnan University, introduced intelligent color-changing fibers and their textiles. At present, the materials that can be used for the research of smart color-changing textiles are metal complexes and organic color-changing pigments, and the team led by Fu Shaohai is studying the application of liquid crystal materials in smart color-changing fibers and textiles.