More scale, more sustainability are the aims of China's next 5 year plan for PU

Beijing – China Polyurethane Industry Association (CPUIA) has issued guidelines in May for the industry’s development for the period from 2021 to 2025.

The country has become the world’s largest maker of polyurethane raw materials. Its raw material capacity accounts for more than a third of the global total.

In 2020, China’s consumption of PU products, including solvent-based dispersions was 11.8MT. According to the guidelines, the country’s diisocyanate production has world-leading technology, and polyols, additives and machinery are all catching on.

There are still problems in sustainability and smart, standardised manufacturing, and the medium- and long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic is casting shadows of uncertainty over the next five years.

Despite these concerns, CPUIA urges more efforts to be made in fundamental and application research for the sector, and better protection of intellectual property. It believes this is the route to technological breakthroughs that can be shared by different market segments. It also wants to see fundamental research applied to the manufacturing process and machinery sectors.

In addition, CPUIA aims to raise company sizes and the level of industrial concentration and integration of supply chain. It encourages smaller firms to form group companies through merger and acquisition, reorganisation and the joint-stock system reform.

Makers of raw materials are being prompted to speed up their relocation to chemical parks. CPIUA believes these parks will act as incubators for new technology, and help generate integrated industrial clusters.

CPUIA has laid out detailed plans for each segment. The country’s TDI capacity stood at 1.38MT/year in 2020, of which 84% was consumed by flexible foam and coatings. MDI capacity reached 3.34MT/year in 2020; consumption totalled 2.45MT. TDI capacity has been expanding at a much faster rate than MDI.

The CPUIA believes the sector is too fragmented, and that it would be more efficient if companies became larger and more integrated. This is the first key requirement of the plan. Once integration is achieved, then companies should use the increased integration to make the sector more energy efficient and raise the level of clean production.

Away from scale, there are two other aims. The first is to boost the development of diamine materials and broaden the country's diisocyanate portfolio. The second technical area will include work to increase safety of the nitration and phosgenation processes used in diisocyanate production. This will help to ensure there is a steady, reliable supply of these key raw materials, CPUIA said.

On the polyols side, CPUIA said that more than 75% of China’s propylene oxide production is used to make polyether polyols. In 2020, China had 3.37MT/year propylene oxide (PO) capacity with an additional 5MT/year planned. The organisation noted that Asia accounted for more than half of the 11.73MT/year global PO capacity in 2020 and CPUIA is keeping an eye on the threat of overcapacity.

There are several key objectives for the sector in the five years from 2021 to 2025. Within China, CPUIA wants industry to increase it use of chlorohydrin and alkali saponification routes to polyether polyols. CPUIA believes this will make production greener than other routes, and better utilise resources.

While that is happening, CPUIA wants work to be done that will investigate how the profitability of the HPPO method might be improved. Integrated PO/polyether projects would be welcomed, as would better equipment and technology, and a more efficient continuous production method.

Greener polyols produced using CO₂ or bio-based routes will be welcomed as will low odour, low VOC. Turning to polyester polyols, these will benefit from better equipment, and process control to improve product quality and broaden the portfolio of materials available in China.

The third element in the materials side of the equation are additives. Here, the plan has two themes: blowing agents and the development of green, functional additives.

In terms of blowing agents, the country should move further away from ozone-depleting substances, and establish and promote safety instructions for alkane blowing agents.

Turning to polyurethane products, the first sector the plan looks at is rigid and flexible foam.

In 2020 China consumed 4.7MT of PU foam, and the plan's focus is split evenly between rigid and flexible foams.

CPUIA wants rigid foams to gain applications in construction, and will promote the use of highly flame-retardant products. It also calls on the industry to develop more environmentally friendly processes for spray foams.

Flexible foams should be of higher quality and be greener, offering Chinese consumers a better experience. Additionally, the sector will promote and develop technology for foam recycling. 

China’s PU elastomer market has been growing rapidly over the past five years, although the market for shoe sole resin has shrunk because of factors such as environmental protection, trade conflicts and substitution by other materials.

Between 2021 and 2025, the plan is for the industry to promote water-based, solvent-free and high-solid content products for the synthetic leather industry.

The plan also calls for research in three important areas for the future. The first is advanced research on the structural design and synthesis of the fundamental CASE raw materials. Here, polyaspartic polyurea formulations are singled out.

The second thrust for research is into fundamental theories and engineering technologies for water-based materials. The third area is to try and understand the correlation between the structure, performance and durability of waterproof polyurethane materials.

In more practical areas, the industry will promote the application of PU and related materials in prefabricated buildings. The use of PU adhesives in oriented strand board and other formaldehyde-free sandwich boards is also to be promoted.

Polyurethane elastomers are likely to find more use in the healthcare sector. Other areas for development include infrastructure such as railways and power transmission.

A separate goal for polyurethane elastomers is to develop differentiated, functional elastane products with high added value. There are also opportunities for PU adhesive materials in road surface and repair, which should be developed by 2026. It also aims to promote the application of PU materials in infrastructure pavement and PU adhesives in road reparation.

On the composites side, the plan envisages an increased importance of advanced functional materials. There will be a focus on resin material technology, resin and fibre compounding technology, and shaping technology and equipment. The use of polyurethane composites should be expanded, the plan said.

Bringing this all together, to help the PU sector meet its goals in the plan CPUIA wants the country to build between three and five chemical parks specialising in PU, and a similar number of PU industry technical centres.

It calls on the industry to produce between three and five projects to showcase PU foam recycling, bio-based or bio-degradable PU materials. Smart technology should benefit from between five and eight pilot projects in smart technology. By 2026, there should be between five and eight well known domestic brands of polyurethane products.