CCTV News
(Focus Interview): Have you heard of biomanufacturing? In fact, you may have come into contact with bio-manufactured products in your life. Hepatitis B vaccine, insulin, hyaluronic acid, collagen, fuel ethanol, etc. are all products produced using biomanufacturing technology. Biomanufacturing is considered to have the potential to lead the "Fourth Industrial Revolution". The market size will reach trillions and it is a hot spot of competition among countries around the world. Our country has also listed biomanufacturing as a strategic emerging industry for key development, which is one of the important means to improve new productivity.
A popular fish feed protein on the market has high nutritional value and a crude protein content of more than 80%. What is unexpected is that it is produced using industrial exhaust gas generated during steelmaking in steel plants.
Shougang Langze, which produces this feed protein, is a subsidiary of Shougang Group. It is the first company in the world to produce feed protein and fuel ethanol from steel industry exhaust gas. Ten years ago, this company introduced gas fermentation technology into the country in order to treat Shougang's industrial exhaust gas. However, this technology has only been proven in the laboratory and is still a long way from industrial application. After years of technical research, Shougang Langze finally opened up the entire system process to achieve mass production.
How does the seemingly magical operation of converting industrial exhaust gas into feed protein work?
Yang Yan, deputy general manager of Hebei Shoulang New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.: "First, the industrial exhaust gas is transported to the gas pretreatment section through pipelines. After simple compression and gas purification, it is transported by pipelines to the core fermentation section. The gas enters from the bottom of the fermentation tank. It only takes a few dozen seconds to get to the top one way."
Next, the industrial exhaust gas is finally turned into protein and ethanol under the action of a bacteria called Clostridium ethanol. Throughout the entire production process, Clostridium ethanolum is the one doing the work, and the staff only need to monitor it. Shougang Langze uses bio-manufacturing technology. The so-called biomanufacturing refers to the manufacturing process of using the physiological metabolic functions or catalytic functions of living organisms such as bacteria, cells, and enzymes to produce chemicals and polymer materials needed by humans on a large scale through industrial fermentation processes. It is an advanced production method with industrial biotechnology as its core.
Tan Tianwei, President of Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: "What is the biggest core point? One is to use living organisms for production, and the biggest feature of living organisms is the reaction process, which is at normal temperature and normal pressure; the second characteristic is that biological Renewable raw materials can be used during body transformation.”
Biomanufacturing is a brand-new production technology that integrates biology, chemistry, engineering and other technologies. It is clean, efficient and renewable. It has the potential to change the world's industrial structure in the fields of energy, agriculture, chemical industry and medicine. . Experts say that biomanufacturing will bring about major changes in at least three aspects: reconstructing the production route of traditional chemicals, replacing the acquisition methods of traditional natural products, and subverting the traditional agricultural breeding model.
Liu Wenqiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: "Biomanufacturing is different from traditional physical and chemical manufacturing models. Biomanufacturing innovates the way of material production, using organisms as the production medium, and revolutionizing the manufacturing industry. It will bring about a series of huge changes; in addition, biomanufacturing uses renewable biomass as raw material, which is also very critical for the manufacturing industry to achieve the dual-carbon goal."
my country has a large amount of industrial exhaust resources. According to expert estimates, the annual output of industrial exhaust gas in industries such as steel and metallurgy, petrochemical refining, and cement exceeds one trillion cubic meters. If 50% of it is utilized, 5 million tons of feed protein can be produced annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 120 million tons, and saving 160 million tons of food. , saving 400 million acres of cultivated land.
Our country not only has a large amount of industrial exhaust gas, but also a lot of agricultural and forestry waste, which is also very suitable for utilization by biotechnology. Bioethanol, commonly known as alcohol, is currently produced in my country through fermentation processes using corn, wheat and other grains as raw materials. In Heilongjiang alone, 2.3 million tons of bioethanol are produced from grain every year. However, with the implementation of this cellulosic ethanol demonstration project, the situation of producing ethanol from grain will be broken. This is the country’s first industrial demonstration project for the production of bioethanol from straw, located in Hailun City, Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province.
Li Chunling, chief engineer of SDIC Advanced Biomass Fuel (Hailun) Co., Ltd.: “The process of producing second-generation ethanol from straw is like this. After the straw is packaged into the factory, it is first purified and impurities are removed, and then the structure is popped like popcorn. It is opened, then hydrolyzed into fermentable sugar by adding biological enzymes, and then yeast is used to turn it into alcohol.”
Traditionally, bioethanol is produced by fermenting starch-rich grains such as corn and wheat to obtain sugar, and then using the sugar to produce ethanol. The advantage of this technology is that it is less difficult and easier to implement. The disadvantage is that it consumes food and causes competition with people for food and land, which affects national food security. SDIC Biotech uses straw to produce sugar and then uses the sugar to produce ethanol.
After more than ten years of technical research, the company finally achieved mass production. Although the current production capacity of this demonstration project is only 30,000 tons and consumes about 150,000 tons of straw, its breakthrough is of great significance. According to statistics, the national straw production in 2021 will be 865 million tons. Therefore, if this technology is fully promoted, it will be a major revolution in traditional technology.
Li Chunling: "Through technological research and development and independent innovation, we finally achieved the transformation of the raw material structure to mainly non-grain. The advantage is that we can use resource-rich agricultural and forestry wastes, which are sustainable, renewable and recyclable, and by utilizing these agricultural and forestry wastes It can reduce carbon emissions and improve environmental pollution.”
Our country is a large industrial and agricultural country, with a lot of resource consumption and corresponding emissions. Therefore, it is possible and necessary to use advanced technological means such as biomanufacturing to resolve this problem and turn waste into treasure. It is crucial to creating new productive forces and promoting economic development towards green, sustainable and high-quality development.
Biotechnology, as one of the means to improve new productivity, has been designated as a strategic emerging industry by our country. To this end, our country has formulated a number of policies and measures. In 2022, the issuance of the "14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development" marks the official launch of my country's first five-year bioeconomy plan. The "Plan" clearly states that the four pillar industries of medical health, bio-agriculture, bio-energy and bio-environmental protection, and bio-information must be cultivated and expanded.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has made great achievements in the development of bio-economy. The number of sub-sectors has gradually increased, and the scale of core industries has grown rapidly. The Yangtze River Delta region has formed an industrial cluster, with a large number of key enterprises in North and Central China. With the strong support of the state, a number of new technologies are constantly being born, which will lead the future development direction of biomanufacturing and redefine the future production model. At the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on July 24, 2018, a brand-new technology was initially completed.
It turns blue when exposed to iodine, which is a distinctive feature of starch. However, the starch used by scientific researchers does not come from plants such as corn and potatoes, but from carbon dioxide.
This is an exciting technology. In 2021, the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that it had achieved the first artificial total synthesis of carbon dioxide to starch in the world. The relevant results were published online in the international academic journal "Science" in September of that year. , the results have been selected into the Top Ten Progress in China's Science in 2021, the Top Ten Progress in China's Life Sciences in 2021, etc. It achieved a breakthrough in creating organic matter from inorganic matter. This technology far exceeds the energy efficiency and speed of corn and other crops in starch synthesis, opening a window for the industrial production of starch and providing new ideas for the synthesis of complex molecules using carbon dioxide as raw materials.
Although this technology has been proven successful under laboratory conditions, it is still some distance away from real industrialization. Therefore, scientists are working hard to break through the final technical barriers. Once successful, the market size will be unlimited.
Cai Tao, a researcher at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences: “On the one hand, a lot of waste carbon dioxide that may have an impact on the environment can be turned into treasure; on the other hand, starch can be synthesized in industrial workshops to save money. 80 to 90 percent land and fresh water."
It turns out that biomanufacturing can fundamentally change the production model of traditional manufacturing. Utilizing new production methods such as biology + medicine, biology + chemical industry, biology + energy, and biology + light industry, a large number of new products have been born, such as recombinant protein drugs, bio-jet kerosene, biodegradable plastics, etc. Bio-manufacturing is considered to have With the potential to lead the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, the future prospects are very broad. It is predicted that the global biomanufacturing output value is close to 30 trillion US dollars.
In the future, with further breakthroughs in biotechnology, biomanufacturing is expected to expand into mining, metallurgy, electronic information, environmental protection and other fields. The development prospects are very broad and it will become an important engine of economic growth.
Liu Wenqiang: “In the next step, the state will strengthen a series of deployments from the policy, enterprise and industrial levels to promote the development of the biomanufacturing industry. In terms of policy, relevant national departments are studying and formulating a top-level planning document for biomanufacturing at the national level. In terms of industry, Relevant national departments will increase the investment of central fiscal funds and deploy a number of bio-manufacturing company platforms in different fields and regions; in terms of enterprises, relevant national departments will support enterprises to strengthen innovative research and development of core industrial strains and key enzyme preparations, and enhance independent innovation capabilities. , to promote the continuous emergence of innovative results.”
As a focus of improving economic competitiveness, biomanufacturing is also another important starting point for my country to promote the construction of a manufacturing power after green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing. As a new productive force, the biomanufacturing industry has unlimited business opportunities, and the development of this industry in my country has just begun. At present, the added value of my country's core biomanufacturing industry accounts for only 2.4% of the industrial added value, and there is huge room for improvement. Our country has a good bio-manufacturing foundation, and coupled with the promotion of a series of policies, our country's bio-manufacturing industry will become increasingly competitive on this new track.