China is the country with the most bamboo species and the highest level of bamboo management. With its rich bamboo resource advantages and increasingly mature bamboo pulp papermaking technology, the bamboo pulp papermaking industry is booming and the pace of transformation and upgrading is accelerating. In 2021, my country's bamboo pulp output was 2.42 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%; there were 23 bamboo pulp production enterprises above designated size, with 76,000 employees and an output value of 13.2 billion yuan; there were 92 bamboo paper and paperboard processing and production enterprises, with 35,000 employees and an output value of 7.15 billion yuan; there were more than 80 handmade paper production enterprises using bamboo as raw materials, with about 5,000 employees and an output value of about 700 million yuan; the pace of eliminating backward production capacity has accelerated, and advanced chemical pulping cooking and bleaching technology, chemical mechanical pulping efficient pre-impregnation and pulping technology and equipment have been widely used in bamboo pulp production. my country's bamboo pulp papermaking industry is moving towards modernization and scale.
New measures
In December 2021, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the National Development and Reform Commission and 10 other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Innovation and Development of the Bamboo Industry". Various localities have successively formulated supporting policies to provide strong policy support for promoting the high-quality development of the bamboo industry, including the bamboo pulp and paper industry. my country's main bamboo pulp and paper production areas are concentrated in Sichuan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan. Among them, Sichuan is currently the largest bamboo pulp and paper production province in my country. In recent years, Sichuan Province has vigorously developed an integrated pulp and paper industry cluster of "bamboo-pulp-paper-processing-sales", created a leading brand of bamboo pulp household paper, and transformed the advantages of green bamboo resources into industrial development advantages, achieving remarkable results. Based on the rich bamboo resources, Sichuan has cultivated high-quality bamboo forest varieties, improved the quality of bamboo forest bases, planted bamboo forests on slopes of more than 25 degrees and non-basic farmland with slopes of 15 to 25 degrees in important water sources that meet the policy, scientifically promoted the three-dimensional management of bamboo forests, coordinated the development of timber bamboo forests and ecological bamboo forests, and strengthened various compensation and subsidy measures. The bamboo reserves have steadily increased. In 2022, the bamboo forest area in the province exceeded 18 million mu, providing a large amount of high-quality bamboo fiber raw materials for bamboo pulping and papermaking, especially bamboo pulp natural color household paper. In order to ensure the quality of bamboo pulp household paper and improve the brand awareness of natural color household paper at home and abroad, the Sichuan Paper Industry Association applied to the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office for registration of the "Bamboo Pulp Paper" collective trademark. From the past single-handed struggle to the current centralized and large-scale development, holding together for warmth and win-win cooperation have become the characteristic advantages of Sichuan Paper's development. In 2021, there were 13 bamboo pulping enterprises above designated size in Sichuan Province, with a bamboo pulp output of 1.2731 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 7.62%, accounting for 67.13% of the country's original bamboo pulp output, of which about 80% was used to produce household paper; there were 58 bamboo pulp household paper base paper enterprises with an annual output of 1.256 million tons; there were 248 bamboo pulp household paper processing enterprises with an annual output of 1.308 million tons. 40% of the natural bamboo pulp household paper produced is sold in the province, and 60% is sold outside the province and abroad through e-commerce sales platforms and the national "Belt and Road" initiative. The world looks to China for bamboo pulp, and China looks to Sichuan for bamboo pulp. The Sichuan "bamboo pulp paper" brand has gone global.
New technology
my country is the world's largest producer of bamboo pulp/bamboo dissolving pulp, with 12 modern bamboo chemical pulp production lines with an annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tons, a total production capacity of 2.2 million tons, of which 600,000 tons are bamboo dissolving pulp. Fang Guigan, a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Forest Products Chemical Industry of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, has long been committed to the research and development of key technologies and equipment for my country's high-yield clean pulping industry. He said that after the joint efforts of industry, academia and research, researchers have broken through the key technologies of bamboo pulp/dissolving pulp production, and advanced cooking and bleaching technologies and equipment have been widely used in the production of bamboo chemical pulp. Through the transformation and application of scientific and technological research results such as "New Technologies for Efficient Bamboo Pulping and Papermaking" since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", my country has initially solved the problem of N and P salt balance in the process of black liquor silicon removal and external discharge treatment. At the same time, breakthrough progress has been made in the increase of the whiteness limit of bamboo high-yield pulp bleaching. Under the condition of economic bleaching agent dosage, the whiteness of bamboo high-yield pulp has increased from less than 65% to more than 70%. At present, researchers are working to break through technical bottlenecks such as high energy consumption and low yield in the bamboo pulp production process, and strive to create cost advantages in bamboo pulp production and improve the international market competitiveness of bamboo pulp.
New opportunities
In January 2020, the new national plastic restriction order stipulated the scope of plastic restriction and the selection of alternatives, bringing new opportunities to bamboo pulp and paper production companies. Experts pointed out that under the background of "dual carbon", bamboo, as an important non-wood forest resource, plays an important role in ensuring global wood security, low-carbon green development, and improving people's livelihood. "Replacing plastic with bamboo" and "replacing wood with bamboo" have great potential and huge industrial development potential. Bamboo grows fast, has a large biomass and is rich in resources. The quality of bamboo fiber morphology and cellulose content is between coniferous wood and broad-leaved wood, and the bamboo pulp produced is comparable to wood pulp. The bamboo pulp fiber is longer than that of broad-leaved wood, the cell wall microstructure is special, the beating strength and ductility are good, and the bleached pulp has good optical properties. At the same time, bamboo has a high cellulose content and is an excellent fiber raw material for papermaking. The differentiated characteristics of bamboo pulp and wood pulp can be used to produce various high-end paper and paperboard products. Fang Guigan said that the sustainable development of the bamboo pulp and paper industry is inseparable from innovation: first, policy innovation, increase financial support, and build and improve infrastructure such as roads, cableways, and slides in bamboo forest areas. Second, innovation in felling equipment, especially the extensive use of automated and intelligent felling equipment, will greatly improve labor productivity and reduce felling costs. Third, model innovation, in areas with good resource conditions, plan and build bamboo processing industrial parks, extend the industrial chain and broaden the processing chain, truly achieve full-quality utilization of bamboo resources, and maximize the economic benefits of the bamboo industry. Fourth, scientific and technological innovation, broaden the types of bamboo processing products, such as bamboo structural materials, bamboo boards, deep processing of bamboo leaves, deep processing of bamboo chips (nodes, bamboo yellow, bamboo bran), high-value utilization of lignin, and expand the scope of application of cellulose (dissolving pulp); solve key technical bottlenecks in bamboo pulp production in a targeted manner and realize the modernization of domestic technology and equipment. For enterprises, by developing new differentiated terminal products such as dissolving pulp, household paper, and food packaging paper, and strengthening the high-value-added comprehensive utilization of fiber waste in production, it is an effective way to get out of a high-profit model as soon as possible and achieve high-quality development.
Post time: Sep-08-2024
