The footsteps of the new scientific and technological revolution and the fourth industrial revolution have become increasingly clear, especially the peak era of fossil energy has come, and new energy and its new energy technology have become the inevitable choice today, which puts forward realistic requirements for new chemical materials, especially functional materials; The transformation and upgrading of China's industry, the healthy and sustainable development of the economy and the realization of the dream of moving from a manufacturing country to a powerful country can not be separated from the special guarantee role of new chemical materials.

Closely related new chemical materials

New chemical materials and carbon fiber bicycles of the Rio Olympic Games helped Chinese girls achieve zero breakthrough in women's cycling teams. Its weight is 3.5kg, and ordinary people can grasp it with one hand, but its strength is 50 times that of steel. Polyurethane "shark skin" (made of closed cell polyurethane foam and filled with air between each small hole) helps sun yangduo. The swimsuits worn by Sun Yang, Ning zetao and Fu Yuanhui, a young girl in the wilderness, are less dense than water, which can increase the buoyancy of athletes and reduce the resistance in the water. In addition, the colorful polyurea coating of the stadium (curing fast 35 seconds, bright colors, non-toxic, weather resistant, low cost) and the new materials of table tennis polyester fiber all show that the new chemical materials are inseparable from the Olympic Games.

New chemical materials and G20 Hangzhou G20 summit have 100 VIP cars, which are T7 high-end business cars produced by Zhengzhou Yutong. The seats, instrument panels, armrests and other interior trim parts in the car are all new polyurethane materials. They are cold cured high resilience composites, which have the advantages of tasteless, good feel and wear resistance.

The launch of new chemical materials and space dream on the 17th of Shenxi and the launch of tiangong-2 on the night of Mid Autumn Festival are still fresh in my memory. In order to solve the problems of salt spray, moisture and heat prevention and mold prevention of spacecraft, the thermal protection coating of spacecraft mainly includes silicone resin, epoxy resin, phenolic resin, etc., and the environmental protection coating mainly uses polytetrafluoroethylene. The astronaut's spacesuit fabric is made of mixed fiber, which has high strength, high temperature resistance, impact resistance, radiation resistance and other characteristics. The interlayer also has the function of automatic leakage stoppage; The finger part of the glove is made of silicone rubber, which can operate precision instruments; The inner layer of the boot is Teflon coated glass fiber, followed by 25 layers of polyimide film and glass fiber cloth, which are overlapped at intervals to ensure lightness and heat insulation.

It can be seen that new chemical materials have excellent performance, strong functionality and high technical content. They are important representatives of the technical level of the chemical industry, supporting aerospace, national defense and military industry, electronic information, high-speed rail and large aircraft, and are important strategic emerging industries. At the same time, it also provides important support for the development of strategic emerging industries such as high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new energy vehicles, energy conservation and environmental protection, and the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Therefore, both developed countries and transnational corporations regard the innovation and development of new chemical materials as the top priority of their core competitiveness, and intellectual property protection and technology blockade have always been the key for transnational corporations to occupy the commanding heights of technology. The output value of China's petrochemical industry has ranked second for six consecutive years, and the chemical industry has ranked as a big country for six consecutive years. However, the contradiction of industrial structural surplus is very prominent, the task of structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading is still very arduous, the capacity of bulk basic chemicals is seriously surplus, and the market for high-end products such as new chemical materials and special chemicals is in short supply. The overcapacity of basic chemicals in the traditional chemical industry has become a serious disaster area, while the lack of high-end chemicals in the field of new chemical materials has also seriously restricted the development of important areas of the national economy.

High end products are difficult to be industrialized, which hinders the development of the industry

The total output of new chemical materials exceeded 60 million tons, and the total output value exceeded 2 trillion yuan. In terms of output and output value, the United States accounts for 38% and 30% respectively, Western Europe accounts for 20.6% and 19.7% respectively, and Japan accounts for 12% and 16.8% respectively, that is, the output of the three countries accounts for 70% of the total output, and the output value is more than 2 / 3. In the list of the top 50 global chemical enterprises, the United States, Germany and Japan account for 27 seats. DuPont, Dow, BASF, LANXESS, kostron, Sumitomo chemical, Toray, Asahi chemical and other multinational companies all focus on new chemical materials and special chemicals. Among them, the transformation and upgrading of Japan's chemical industry is worth learning from. As we all know, Japan is at a high level in the field of electronic chemicals, and has a high level in the fields of high-performance film materials, high-performance fibers, engineering plastics and special engineering plastics, high-end polyolefin resins, high-performance rubber, fluorosilicone resins and rubber.

This year, the author had three in-depth exchanges with the Japanese chemical industry at the industrial economic forum of the Japanese Ministry of economy, trade and industry in early April, the Symposium of the Japanese friends association in early August, and the Sino Japanese petrochemical Summit Forum in mid September. During the exchange, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Mitsui and other major Japanese chemical companies all said that the future development focus of Japanese chemical enterprises is new chemical materials and special chemicals.

China has always attached great importance to the R & D and industrialization of new chemical materials. Since the "sixth five year plan" and the "Seventh Five Year Plan", China has been focusing on key fields and major projects, organizing technical research, pilot research and industrial development in engineering plastics, special engineering plastics, special fibers, membrane materials, etc. since the "Eleventh Five Year Plan", the capacity of devices in fluorosilicone materials, polyurethane materials, engineering plastics, high-performance rubber and other industries has grown rapidly, and the capacity of advanced energy storage materials, photovoltaic materials, silicone and other industries has ranked first. However, due to the difficulty in overcoming the core technology and mastering the industrialization technology, the devices and output of some general-purpose varieties are considerable, but most high-end products are always difficult to be industrialized and stably supplied. At present, the comprehensive self-sufficiency rate of the domestic new chemical materials market is only about 60%. This field has become a big short board of China's petrochemical industry, as well as a major constraint on the development of China's strategic emerging industries, key projects, and even safety. In terms of high-end products, the gap between China and Japan is obvious. According to statistics, the output of new chemical materials in China is 1.05 million tons more than that in Japan, but the output value is more than 46 billion yuan less.

Three bottlenecks restrict the industry from entering the international market

The scale and production technology level of oil refining and bulk inorganic and organic chemicals in China's petrochemical industry can be said to be equivalent to the international level, but the new chemical materials industry, which represents the advanced technology level of the petrochemical industry, has always been significantly different from the international level, and the gap is even greater than that of international multinational companies. There are mainly three bottlenecks:

1. Stable supply of high-end products is difficult to achieve. The self-sufficiency rate of high-end products in the new chemical materials industry is low. In 2015, the consumption of engineering plastics was 4.21 million tons, but the self-sufficiency rate was only 49%; In the same period, the consumption of carbon accumulation was 1.66 million tons, of which 73% depended on imports; Last year, the consumption of high-end polyolefin was 9.22 million tons, the import was 5.87 million tons, and the self-sufficiency rate was only 38%; For carbon fiber among high-performance fibers, the operating rate of domestic plants is only 20%, and the self-sufficiency rate is 28.6%; More representative is high-performance membrane materials, with a market capacity of about 45 billion yuan and a comprehensive self-sufficiency rate of 43%. According to statistics, among the 7 categories and 12 products, 6 have a self-sufficiency rate of less than 20%. The annual consumption of perfluorinated ion exchange membrane for electrolysis is 190000 square meters, almost all of which are imported; Perfluorinated fuel cell membrane, with a self-sufficiency rate of 5%; The annual consumption of PVF / PVDF backplane protective film is 410 million square meters, and the self-sufficiency rate is 10%; Industrial gas separation membrane, self-sufficiency rate 13%; The annual consumption of reverse osmosis membrane is about 34 million square meters, and the self-sufficiency rate is 15%; The annual consumption of hemodialysis membrane is 11 million square meters, and the self-sufficiency rate is 18%;

2. The core technology can not be attacked for a long time. Although China has always attached great importance to the new chemical materials industry, some core technologies have always been difficult to overcome, especially the industrialization technology, which has seriously restricted the development of the industry. Starting from the "sixth five year plan", engineering plastics polycarbonate, mainly Chenguang Institute and Changzhou organic chemical plant, and polyformaldehyde, mainly Shanghai solvent plant and Jilin shijinggou United Chemical Plant, have organized scientific and technological breakthroughs. Now there are industrial production devices in China, but they are mainly general-purpose varieties, and it is still difficult to continuously and stably supply high-end varieties. Carbon fiber also started in the 1960s. Later, universities and enterprises were organized to carry out national scientific and technological research, and a continuous and stable industrial production device has never been formed. At present, many domestic manufacturers have built carbon fiber production lines, T300 products can be provided, T700, T800 and other high-end products are still difficult to break through the technical bottleneck, product quality is unstable, actual output is low, product uniformity and stability are poor The problem of high cost has not been well solved. The research and development of ion exchange membrane started in the late 1950s, and has not formed an industrial production device. China is now a major producer of chlor alkali. The average annual demand for perfluorinated ion exchange membranes in the whole industry is 300000-400000 square meters, almost all of which are imported. Although Dongyue Group has developed successfully, the large-scale industrial application of engineering plastics nylon, polyphenylene sulfide, isoprene rubber, photoresist and other products still needs some time.

3. Key raw materials can not be attacked for a long time. For example, adiponitrile, the key raw material for nylon engineering plastics, has two main production processes: butadiene process and acrylonitrile electrolysis process. Internationally, butadiene process is the main one. Due to its short reaction process and low energy consumption, which accounts for about 70%, it has been monopolized by a few companies such as INVISTA and BASF. China has been unable to master its core technology, and the products are mainly imported, which seriously restricts the development of nylon 66. As high-carbon olefins such as hexene and octene depend on imports, the self-sufficiency rate of hexene co polyethylene is 44%, and that of octene co polyethylene is only 8.3%. In 2015, China's high-end polyolefin market consumption was 9.22 million tons, of which 5.87 million tons were imported. In addition, PTT (poly (propylene terephthalate) of high-performance fibers is also affected by the shortage of raw material propylene glycol for a long time.

How to break through these bottlenecks and constraints? The key is innovation. At the G20 summit, the general secretary said that "innovation is the key to fundamentally unlock the lock of growth". Innovation is the first of the five development concepts. Only innovation can overcome its key core technologies, improve the self-sufficiency rate of new chemical materials, and improve the high-end and differentiation of new chemical materials.

What is the focus of innovation? First, focus on the industrialization of basic products of new chemical materials, and realize the continuous and stable production of engineering plastics, special engineering plastics, high-performance fibers and other important products; Second, focus on the high-end and serialization of products, and increase the R & D and industrialization of downstream product chains and end products such as fluorosilicone materials, electronic chemicals, high-performance membrane materials; Third, we pay great attention to new technologies and products in the field of new chemical materials, such as inorganic ceramic membranes. Because of their high-efficiency separation function, high-temperature resistance, chemical erosion resistance, good mechanical strength, strong antimicrobial ability, large penetration, strong cleanability and long service life, they are receiving increasing attention and are becoming an important part of high-performance membrane materials. Nanjing University of technology has carried out research and development for many years, We have basically mastered the preparation technology of inorganic ceramic membrane, and are accelerating the application and development in the petrochemical industry. It is expected to form a market scale of more than 10 billion yuan in the next few years. Fourth, we attach great importance to the development of functional materials. Functional materials in the field of new chemical materials are the focus of research and development in various countries. With the development of information technology, biotechnology, new energy technology, aviation, aerospace and other high-tech fields in China, especially with the development of key projects such as large aircraft, high-speed rail and other rail transit projects in China, as well as the development of electronic appliances, communication equipment and ecological environment industries, superconducting materials, flat panel display materials Rare earth functional materials, biomedical materials, hydrogen storage and other new energy materials have huge development potential and market space.