The Road to Carbon Neutrality

1. Environmental footprint of PLA

Polylactic acid (PLA) is considered to be the most potential material to replace traditional plastics and can be used for almost all kinds of plastics in injection molding, film, sheet, fiber. Under the goal of global low-carbon development and China's carbon neutrality, the low-carbon properties of polylactic acid have been recognized by the industry.

PLA has a wide range of raw materials. First-generation PLA uses agricultural products such as grains and cassava as raw materials, and second-generation PLA uses straw and other agricultural and agricultural product processing residues as raw materials. The existing PLA plants in the world and in China are mainly first-generation plants, and corn is the main raw material for domestic production of PLA. Fengyuan has planned to build a second-generation PLA pilot plant this year. In 2025, straw raw materials will be used on a large scale to produce polylactic acid. In the future, straw will gradually replace the dominant position of grain-based PLA plants.

In the evaluation of the environmental footprint of polylactic acid, the carbon pool of corn is calculated, and according to the energy utilization of domestic straw in the industrial chain (50% of the straw is collected for energy production, the energy conversion efficiency is 45%), every 1 ton of polylactic acid is used. Compared with traditional materials PP, PE and PET, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.7-3.2 tons.

2. Carbon footprint of PLA

Compared with traditional petrochemical-based polymers, PLA has reliable biosafety and biodegradability. Since PLA is bio-based, PLA has a significant effect on carbon reduction, and carbon emissions are reduced by more than 68% compared with traditional fossil-based plastics.

Use of carbohydrates in bioplastics (kg of sugar per kg of plastic).