Shanghai Donggeng 50,000 tonnes/year PGA (polyglycolic acid) project achieved success pilot scale experiment in Ningdong coal chemical pilot base, Ningxia province of Northwest China.
Compared with the traditional two-step ring-opening method, the glycolide ring-opening polymerization method adopted in this project greatly improved dehydration, cracking reaction temperature, product quality and processing difficulty encountered in the traditional PGA production process. Furthermore, it can also produce medical-grade PGA.
PGA Capacity Statistics in China (Unit: '000 t/y)
Enterprise |
Capacity |
Location |
Shenhua Yulin Energy Chemical |
50 |
Yulin, Shaanxi |
Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Scientific |
1.5 |
Baotou, Inner Mongolia |
Tongliao Gem Chemical |
3 |
Tongliao, Inner Mongolia |
Sichuan Polymtek Biomaterial |
0.3 |
Chengdu, Sichuan |
Total |
54.8 |
|
Source: OilChem
According to OilChem, China PGA capacity totals 54,800 t/y, and market circulation resources mainly come from Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Scientific, which has more mature technology, while other producers mainly maintain shutdown due to soft market demand.
Ongoing and Proposed PGA Projects in China (Unit: '000 t/y)
Enterprise |
Design Capacity |
Sinopec Hubei Chemical Fertilizer |
50 |
Sinopec Great Wall Energy and Chemical (Guizhou) |
200 |
China Energy Mengxi Coal Chemical |
100 |
Xinjiang Guanghui New Material Technology |
100 |
Chongqing Kabeile Chemical |
150 |
Ningxia Kunpeng Clean Energy |
100 |
Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical |
0.198 |
Inner Mongolia Pujing Polymer Scientific |
100 |
Inner Mongolia Zhuozheng Coal Chemical |
800 |
Total |
1,600.198 |
Source: OilChem
According to incomplete statistics, ongoing and proposed PGA capacity exceeds 1.6 million t/y in China, but the project progress remains slow and no newly added capacities might come on stream in the next two years on account of its long technology development cycle.
Written by Ariel Guo, gq@oilchem.net
Edited by Navy Liu, liuchuanjun@mysteel.com