Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls, and is the most widely distributed and most abundant polysaccharide in nature, accounting for more than 50% of the carbon content in the plant kingdom. Among them, the cellulose content of cotton is close to 100%, which is the purest natural cellulose source. In general wood, cellulose accounts for 40-50%, and there are 10-30% hemicellulose and 20-30% lignin. Cellulose ether is a general term for a variety of derivatives obtained from natural cellulose as raw material through etherification. It is a product formed after the hydroxyl groups on cellulose macromolecules are partially or completely replaced by ether groups. There are intra-chain and inter-chain hydrogen bonds in cellulose macromolecules, which are difficult to dissolve in water and almost all organic solvents, but after etherification, the introduction of ether groups can improve hydrophilicity and greatly increase the solubility in water and organic solvents. Solubility properties.

Cellulose ether has the reputation of “industrial monosodium glutamate”. It has excellent properties such as solution thickening, good water solubility, suspension or latex stability, film forming, water retention, and adhesion. It is also non-toxic and tasteless, and is widely used in Building materials, medicine, food, textiles, daily chemicals, petroleum exploration, mining, papermaking, polymerization, aerospace and many other fields. Cellulose ether has the advantages of wide application, small unit usage, good modification effect, and environmental friendliness. It can significantly improve and optimize product performance in the field of its addition, which is conducive to improving resource utilization efficiency and product added value. Environmentally friendly additives that are essential in various fields.

According to the ionization of cellulose ether, the type of substituents and the difference in solubility, cellulose ether can be classified into different categories. According to the different types of substituents, cellulose ethers can be divided into single ethers and mixed ethers. According to solubility, cellulose ether can be divided into water-soluble and water-insoluble products. According to ionization, it can be divided into ionic, non-ionic and mixed products. Among water-soluble cellulose ethers, non-ionic cellulose ethers such as HPMC have significantly better temperature resistance and salt resistance than ionic cellulose ethers (CMC).

How does cellulose ether upgrade in the industry?

Cellulose ether is made from refined cotton through alkalization, etherification and other steps. The production process of pharmaceutical grade HPMC and food grade HPMC is basically the same. Compared with building material-grade cellulose ether, the production process of pharmaceutical-grade HPMC and food-grade HPMC requires staged etherification, which is complex, difficult to control the production process, and requires high cleanliness of equipment and the production environment.

According to the data provided by the China Cellulose Industry Association, the total production capacity of non-ionic cellulose ether manufacturers with large domestic production capacity, such as Hercules Temple, Shandong Heda, etc., exceeds 50% of the national total production capacity. There are many other small non-ionic cellulose ether manufacturers with a production capacity of less than 4,000 tons. Except for a few enterprises, most of them produce ordinary building material grade cellulose ethers, with a total production capacity of about 100,000 tons per year. Due to lack of financial strength, many small enterprises fail to meet the standards in environmental protection investment in water treatment and exhaust gas treatment in order to reduce production costs. As the country and the whole society pay more and more attention to environmental protection, those enterprises in the industry that cannot meet the requirements of environmental protection will gradually shut down or reduce production. At that time, the concentration of my country’s cellulose ether manufacturing industry will further increase.

Domestic environmental protection policies are becoming more and more stringent, and strict requirements are put forward for environmental protection technology and investment in the production process of cellulose ether. High-standard environmental protection measures increase the production cost of enterprises and also form a high threshold for environmental protection. Enterprises that cannot meet environmental protection requirements will likely be gradually shut down or reduce production due to failure to meet environmental protection standards. According to the company’s prospectus, enterprises that gradually reduce production and stop production due to environmental protection factors may involve a total supply of about 30,000 tons/year of ordinary building material grade cellulose ether, which is conducive to the expansion of advantageous enterprises.

Based on cellulose ether, it continues to extend to high-end and high value-added products