Furan-based bio-based materials are facing a qualitative leap, and many companies have built kiloton-scale pilot plants

Under the dual-carbon goal, bio-based materials have received unprecedented attention. The bio-based materials industry has unique advantages in reducing carbon emissions throughout its life cycle. The development of the bio-based materials industry is of great significance for reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable development.

Europe and the United States have introduced a series of policies to promote carbon reduction actions

Germany has introduced a renewable energy law to encourage the development and utilization of green energy. It stipulates that large enterprises with annual electricity consumption of more than 1 billion kilowatt hours need to establish an energy management system and obtain relevant certificates before they can enjoy tax exemption policies.

The EU approved 6 full-process CCS projects and invested 21 million euros to promote the LEILAC project to develop direct separation calcination technology to reduce 60% of carbon emissions in the cement and lime production process.

The Netherlands has established an SDE (SDE+) funding program since 2012 to encourage the development of renewable energy production and emission reduction technologies.

There have also been major adjustments to U.S. climate and energy policy. President Biden has launched a series of new climate and energy policies through executive orders, including the American Clean Energy Act, the Building Back a Better Future Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Hydrogen Energy Plan. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act, a $368 billion package that aims to shift the U.S. economy away from fossil fuel-intensive production and toward a hybrid grid full of green technologies, low emissions, and through tax subsidies, right here in the U.S. Cultivate new energy industries and weaken the industrial advantages of other countries.

These policies reflect the imperative for carbon reduction actions in European and American countries and have already played a certain role in promoting global carbon reduction.

Domestic capital layout of bio-based materials market

At present, my country has implemented a number of plans in its carbon reduction actions, and industrial clusters with the bio-based materials industry as the core have been formed in Anhui, Henan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places. At the same time, domestic capital is also investing in the bio-based market, and the potential of this market is gradually emerging.

According to reports, in July 2021, Sequoia Capital led the investment in the synthetic biotechnology company Enhe Biotech. Shen Nanpeng once said: “We should believe in the potential of technological innovation, such as new energy fields, synthetic biology, biotechnology and other fields.”
Hillhouse Capital is also actively investing in the bio-based track. On January 10, 2022, Blue Crystal Microorganisms announced the completion of the B3 round of financing. So far, the total Series B financing has reached 1.5 billion yuan. Among them, Hillhouse Venture Capital continues to make additional investments in this round of financing. In addition, Legend Capital, which is betting on carbon-neutral investments, is also taking the lead in the bio-based field. In February last year, Legend Capital invested in Zhongke Guosheng, a start-up company engaged in the design and development of furan-based bio-based materials. In December last year, Zhongke Guosheng Keguosheng also announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in Pre-A round financing, and Legend Capital, as an old shareholder, continued to invest.

Capital deployment in the bio-based market is not only due to the background of dual carbon and sustainable development, but also because bio-based materials have broad application prospects. Some products are logically better suited to bio-based production. At the same time, with the improvement of people’s environmental awareness and the government’s promotion of environmental protection policies, the prospects of the bio-based materials market are brighter.

Furan bio-based materials are particularly popular, and related companies have received large amounts of financing

In the field of bio-based materials, furan bio-based materials have been particularly popular recently. Furan has broad application prospects. It can be used as an important raw material in the organic synthesis industry to manufacture a variety of chemical raw materials and drugs, such as pyrrole, thiophene, tetrahydrofuran and benzofuran. Compared with other bio-based materials, furan bio-based materials have higher thermal stability Its unique structure and chemical properties make it have broad application prospects in the fields of organic synthesis and polymer materials.

Furan bio-based material 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is the only platform compound with an aromatic ring. It has good chemical reactivity and can prepare thousands of derivatives such as FDCA, THFDM, BAMF, etc., and these derivatives can Continue to synthesize tens of thousands of end products. These end products are widely used in polyester, plastics, surfactants, adhesives, aramid, fibers and other fields. Among them, FDCA is currently the monomer with the clearest application prospects for furan bio-based materials. Its polymer with ethylene glycol, PEF, has become a hot spot pursued by international brands and capital because it is chemically very similar to PET. Many leaders at home and abroad Companies have joined the furan bio-based materials track one after another.

Currently, the foreign companies that have deployed furan tracks include Avantium of the Netherlands, DuPont of the United States, and AVA of Switzerland.
Biochem, BASF of Germany, etc. Although research on furan materials by foreign companies started earlier, domestic companies are catching up and the current technology level is on the same level as international giants.

Domestic representative companies include: Hefei Live Biotechnology (established in July 2014), Zhejiang Tangneng (established in December 2017), Jiangsu Seric (established in October 2020), Zhongke Guosheng (established in July 2021), Hangzhou Yunshang New Materials (established in December 2022), etc.

In recent years, with the breakthroughs in pilot tests, these companies have also received large amounts of financing: Hefei Lifu 2In June 2023, it completed nearly 200 million yuan in Series B financing. Hangzhou Yunshang New Materials received strategic investment from Shenzhen Guarantee Group and Xiaochi Capital in June 2023; Yujun Biotech announced in January 2023 that it had completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B financing. ; Zhongke Guosheng completed nearly 100 million yuan in Pre-A round financing in December 2022; Zhejiang Tangneng received strategic investment from Commerce Group and Feldspar Investment in November 2022; Jiangsu Seric completed tens of millions of yuan in August 2022. Angel round financing.

A number of furan material companies have built kiloton-scale pilot plants

After more than 10 years of research, FDCA is no longer limited to small-scale laboratory products. Many companies have built thousand-ton pilot plants:

Zhongke Guosheng focuses on the development of the entire industry chain of HMF bio-based platform compounds and downstream derivatives. In September 2022, it has formed a kiloton-level HMF continuous production line and a 100-ton level derivatives production line.

Hefei Leaf focuses on the R&D and industrial production of FDCA and its downstream applications. It will build the world’s first 1,000-ton FDCA production line in Bengbu in 2022, and plans to start building a 10,000-ton production line at the end of 2023 and officially put it into production in 2025.

Hangzhou Yunshang New Materials (subsidiary Biomax) focuses on FDCA and its downstream derivative bio-based chemicals, and will complete an FDCA pilot plant with an annual output of 50 tons in 2022. Yunshang New Materials was the first in the industry to propose the concept and ideas of crude oxidation, promoting the industrialization process of bio-based materials.

The Ningbo Institute of Materials Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully completed the pilot test of the FDCA device in August 2023, with the productivity close to the industrial level.

Zhejiang Sugar Energy focuses on the development of FDCA products in the midstream of the industry. In September 2023, it has completed the continuous and stable operation of the HMF 1,000-ton production line.

Jiangsu Seric will begin the design and construction of a 25 ton/year FDCA pilot plant in 2022. It is expected that a 5,000-ton/year demonstration plant will be put into operation in 2025, and an FDCA commercial unit with a production capacity of 500,000 tons is expected to be put into operation by 2028.

It can be concluded that FDCA is just around the corner from industrial mass production. This time point is a qualitative leap for a certain enterprise and has epoch-making significance for the entire industry.

Application exploration: polyester, fiber, film, surfactant, aramid…

The Danish Carlsberg Company, the world’s fourth largest brewing group, has promoted the application testing of bio-based PEF beer bottles in Europe as early as 2022. Japan’s Mitsui Company began to develop PEF films and packaging bottles in 2015. Jiangsu Sumida Group, a Fortune 500 company, Recently, it also plans to purchase 200,000 PEF polyester packaging bottles.

Hefei Leaf has made many breakthroughs in the downstream application of its products. The coating materials developed in cooperation with the domestic leader in lithium battery separator coating have begun to be shipped. The self-developed PEF polyester bottle flakes are highly recognized by customers in terms of performance. The application development of bio-based polyester fibers, special nylons, electrolyte additives, etc. with multiple strategic partners is progressing smoothly and is expected to be implemented after small batch trials. Large scale order delivery.

Zhongke Guosheng has obtained pilot application verification. In May 2023, it began to cooperate with Wankai New Materials, a leader in bottle flakes, in fiber and multi-layer film applications to develop PEF application tests. In September 2023, it cooperated with Tongkun New Materials Research Institute on a project. The pilot test of bio-based furan polyester fiber was successful.