Recently, at a news conference in Chile's capital Santiago, Roberto Astete, the general manager of Chile's SoluBag company, demonstrated the oral water-soluble plastic bags over and over again, causing more than 800 media from around the world to scramble to shoot.
This is no joke. A technology from China has provided a new solution to the “plastic ban†in Chile and the world. This technology that has attracted global attention is exactly the hard work of Professor Cui Yuefei of South China University of Technology in the past 15 years.
Cui Yuefei, the inventor of the water-soluble plastic bag, carefully took out several plastic bags from a briefcase. He drew a plastic bag out of it, demonstrating its "dissolvable in water" effect, and said cautiously: Although the material used to make plastic bags, polyvinyl alcohol, is not harmful to the body, plastic bags are not food and are not encouraged to eat.
Professor of R & D "Patent"
As he said, he licked the plastic bag with the tip of his tongue, and the plastic bag melted in his mouth instantly. For more than ten years, Cui Yuefei has almost consumed this plastic bag.
Cui Yuefei can be said to have fought all his life in the field of polymer materials. After graduating from South China University of Technology in 1985 with a major in materials, he stayed at the university to do research. However, he turned to study plastics by accident. In the 1990s, Cui Yuefei formed his own research team. Just that year, he received a research project to develop airport passageway floor glue. This opportunity led him to the path of modified plastic materials.
Graphic-independent
Only, later he found this road very difficult.
"Since then, there has been no time to write a thesis." Cui Yuefei said, most of the energy is spent on the development of patented technology. Currently, he has applied for more than 50 patents and is a veritable "patent" professor in the school. With this invention of plastic bags, there are 36 patents, forming a patent pool.
Cui Yuefei's idea is very pragmatic: "Patent is closer to practical application." As a post-60s, Cui Yuefei said: "Since I was young, I received more traditional education and emphasized the" home country feelings ". , The country and even human beings have a little meaning. "
Did not ask for a penny from the country
In the 1990s, during the period of great economic development in China, the demand for plastic materials also skyrocketed, and there were many opportunities. Cui Yuefei said, "We will complete three or five projects a year." But at the same time, Cui Yuefei also realized some potential problems. By around 2002, some large-scale electrical appliances companies used tens of thousands of tons of plastics every year. "They all ask us to do research and want to find plastics with good materials and low cost." Cui Yuefei said, "In fact, it is difficult to balance the two, and only add some cheap raw materials that are not environmentally friendly."
Cui Yuefei realized that this kind of material competition between enterprises not only does not conform to the trend of social development, but also allows technology to enter a "dead end". He was keenly aware: "making environmentally friendly materials is the breakthrough." Since then, he led the team to turn to research and development of environmentally friendly materials.
With a clear direction, Cui Yuefei began to work on water-soluble materials, which are the basic materials of the plastic bag now developed. Since 2002, the intermediate research and development took eight years to complete the technical verification test.
"Time is not long, but short is not short," said Cui Yuefei, who walked a lot of detours in the meantime, and the skipped "can" were all thoughts of giving up in minutes.
The first thing that can't be bypassed is the issue of research funding. Cui Yuefei said, "I didn't reach out to ask the country for a penny," all because of the little money accumulated in previous product research and development. At the beginning, he also took a detour. "It took three years of time, money, and energy to prove an impassable path."
500 raw materials tested before and after
"Of course, if you don't hit the wall, you don't know to go the other way firmly." Cui Yuefei smiled.
At the beginning, it fell into the traditional plastic processing thinking and did not come out. "PVA (Chinese name: Polyvinyl Alcohol) is the main material of our plastic bags. Its melting point is 220 ~ 230 ℃. If it is processed according to traditional plastics, it must be heated to 220 ~ 230 ℃ before processing." Cui Yuefei did not expect : "This material begins to decompose when heated to 180 ° C. When it decomposes above 190 ° C, it not only decomposes but also produces violent cross-linking. As a result, the entire device is stuck and cannot move at all."
"You have to change your mindset and start again!" Cui Yuefei said. This requires another set of technical solutions, and it will be processed like plastic. "How can it be heated to less than 180 ℃ can flow, and then processed?" Cui Yuefei said, this was the biggest difficulty at the time. Therefore, they found some raw materials to match with PVA, and then screened through simulation calculations. After testing various raw materials, they finally found a few suitable "partners".
New problems have arisen: some of these matching raw materials are toxic and do not meet environmental protection requirements. Therefore, the first- and second-generation water-soluble plastic bags he developed did not eliminate this "hard wound". To solve this problem, we can only continue to do experiments and find materials. "Finally, gradually find non-toxic and harmless raw materials to replace all toxic raw materials." Cui Yuefei said: "Around 500 kinds of raw materials have been tried before and after." It was not until 2008 that the research and development of materials was successful.
Cui Yuefei didn't think that he was the first person to "run to the end" on this project. Because, around the world, looking for environmentally friendly plastic materials is the direction everyone is optimistic about. When Cui Yuefei was buried in the experiment, not only several domestic research teams, but also Italy, Japan and other countries were trying their best to carry out technical challenges.
Chile favors Chinese technology
Cui Yuefei has been transforming scientific research achievements over the years, and has certain psychological preparations for the "landing" cycle of technology, but Cui Yuefei did not expect long-term waiting.
Until 2015, Cui Yuefei met Yang Zhenggao, the general manager of Polystone Chemical Co., Ltd. at the school, and the two sides decided to cooperate.
"The two parties agreed that the initial investment of the project for incubation, including site, personnel, equipment, raw materials, related testing, certification, etc., will be all undertaken by the company. During the cooperative incubation period, we will retain some key patented technologies and key raw materials."
Luck always favors a prepared mind. In April 2016, the first batch of trial production raw material products were produced and finally succeeded. At this time, it happened to meet Roberto Astete of Chile Solubag. They have actually been looking for this material in China for more than two years. Cui Yuefei anticipates that his technology is very likely to change the destiny of an industry.
He introduced that the PVA raw materials produced in China and the production technology were transferred from Japan to China. At that time, China was still in an era of poor materials. This material was used to make vinylon, made socks, and undershirts, to solve the problem of Chinese dress . Later, with the development of chemical fiber technology, everyone no longer needs vinylon, which directly leads to overcapacity.
All vinylon factories are looking for a way out. "This time, it is a great opportunity." Cui Yuefei said more and more excited: "If it is made into environmentally friendly products, the industry chain will soon be upgraded."
It is of great significance to solve marine plastic pollution
Reporter: The media reports "water-soluble bags that can be eaten and drunk". Can they really eat and drink?
Cui Yuefei: Many media have made render reports on PVA water-soluble materials, and even described this PVA water-soluble bag as being able to eat and drink. This is an unscientific and rigorous description. Here, we only guarantee that the polyvinyl alcohol materials and products prepared using our technology and raw materials are non-toxic and harmless, but we cannot guarantee that other polyvinyl alcohol materials and products on the market are also non-toxic and harmless.
This material is not food, even if it is non-toxic and harmless, it is not recommended to eat and drink because the environmental and technical requirements for food production and industrial product production are different.
Reporter: How long does it take for plastic bags to degrade?
Cui Yuefei: In the presence of PVA degrading bacteria or degrading enzymes, it can reach more than 90% in a few days. If it is degraded naturally, it will take a long time depending on the natural environment.
Polyvinyl alcohol material is water-soluble. After a few minutes of dissolution, it only disappears in the water, and it does not biodegrade in a few minutes to generate water and carbon dioxide. After being dissolved in water, this material will not cause pollution and damage to the water quality of the water source; especially after the water is dissolved into the soil in nature, it will not only pollute and destroy the soil quality, but also have obvious soil improvement effects, such as enhancing the soil granularity and air permeability. Sex and water retention, delay the loss of chemical fertilizers, especially for potash fertilizer, it is beneficial to the growth of crops; it is especially suitable for sand and soil transformation and is an environmentally friendly material.
Reporter: Plastic bags are water-soluble. What should I do if they encounter water during use?
Cui Yuefei: At first, we wanted to make hot-water-soluble plastic bags, which were heated to above 75 ℃ and melted. But this company in Chile insists on plastic bags that are soluble in water at room temperature. They don't think there is such a confusion.
It will take time to use in China
Reporter: What is the current application in the world, and what does it mean for environmental protection?
Cui Yuefei: Ocean pollution is a serious problem, with 8 million tons of plastic flowing into the ocean every year, causing the death of marine life. In fact, we are now mainly targeting maritime country regions: these countries all attach great importance and have substantial actions. For example, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Chile, etc.
Reporter: Will this technology be applied in China?
Cui Yuefei: A new material use environment has subverted the previous concept. How to introduce it into the market, let the market accept it, and let the people recognize it will take time and a certain amount of effort. At present, the unit price of raw materials produced by the third-generation technology is only about 1.5 times that of ordinary general-purpose plastics. We hope that through subsequent technological innovations and upgrades, we will realize the cost of the fifth-generation technology with a unit price similar to that of ordinary general-purpose plastics. Packaging and consumer film applications.
Reporter: What strength supports you to go on?
Cui Yuefei: Actually, people don't need to do many things in one's life, they just need to stick to one thing, and sticking to it will always be rewarding.
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