Summary: BBCA Group is actively expanding its business presence in the bio-based material industry across China by increasing its production capacities of lactic acid and PLA.

On 27 Sept., the environmental impact (EI) reports of the 5,000 t/a D-lactic acid industrialisation demonstration project and the 3,000 t/a polylactic acid (PLA) industrialisation demonstration project of Anhui BBCA Biochemical Co., Ltd. (BBCA Biochemical), a subsidiary of China BBCA Group Corporation (BBCA Group), were publicised before getting approval. It is understood that the above-mentioned two projects are the first phase of the 10,000 t/a D-lactic acid & 5,000 t/a poly-D-lactic acid project announced previously by BBCA Biochemical.

Overview of 5,000 t/a D-lactic acid industrialisation demonstration project:

• Construction nature: New construction  
• Location: Guzhen Economic Development Zone, Bengbu City, Anhui Province
• Product scheme: 5,000 t/a of D-lactic acid and by-product 4,500 t/a of gypsum
• Total investment: USD15.92 million (RMB113 million), of which USD1.99 million (RMB14.10 million) for environmental protection, accounting for 12.48%
• Labour quota: 80 employees
• Working system: Three 8-hour shifts per 24-hour workday, totalling 300 days annually
• Production process: Lactic acid is produced from 6,250 t/a of glucose (substrate) and D-Lactic acid bacteria strain through fermentation, extraction, refining and other processes. (The product produced in this project will be provided to Anhui BBCA Taifu PLA Co., Ltd. (BBCA Taifu) for the production of PLA and lactide)

 

Overview of 3,000 t/a PLA industrialisation demonstration project:

• Construction nature: New construction
• Location: Guzhen Economic Development Zone, Bengbu City, Anhui Province
• Product scheme: 3,000 t/a of PLA and by-product 1,000 t/a of racemic lactic acid
• Total investment: USD18.73 million (RMB133 million), of which USD1.45 million (RMB10.30 million) for environmental protection, accounting for 7.74%
• Labour quota: 80 employees
• Working system: Three 8-hour shifts per 24-hour workday, totalling 300 days annually
• Production process: The project will adopt the two-step method (ring-opening polymerization of lactide) to synthesise PLA. The project will use D-lactic acid as the starting raw material, dehydrate lactic acid molecules by pressing and heating to first produce lactide with initiators or catalysts, and then produce PLA after purifying, extracting, and concentrating the lactide.

 

Up to now, BBCA Group's existing or under-construction lactic acid and PLA production capacities include:

• BBCA Biochemical: It launched production lines for lactic acid (5,000 t/a) and PLA (3,000 t/a) in Nov. 2019.
• Anhui BBCA Futailai Lactic Acid Co., Ltd. (BBCA Futailai): Its 150,000 t/a lactic acid & 100,000 t/a PLA project was fully put into production in Dec. 2021.
• BBCA Taifu: Its 500,000 t/a lactic acid project and the 300,000 t/a PLA project are expected to start production in H2 2022.

In addition, BBCA Group is actively expanding its business presence in the bio-based material industry across China. It has proposed three bio-based degradable material projects in Hainan, Heilongjiang and Anhui provinces, aiming for a PLA production capacity of over 1 million tonnes.

Bio-based Industrial Base in Hainan (to start construction in 2022)

In mid-June, BBCA Biochemical received investment funds totalling USD42.26 million (RMB300 million) from Hainan Suida Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) and is planning to set up a subsidiary in Hainan to build up a plant in the province. That will help diversify the local green industrial system and develop a bio-based degradable material industrial hub.

Straw-based PLA Whole Industrial Chain Project in Heilongjiang

On 27 May, collaborating with the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, BBCA Group brought up a special fund plan—initial fundraising seeks around USD352.15 million (RMB2.5 billion)—to level up the local comprehensive utilisation of straw. This proposed plan intends to start a China-first PLA bio-based new material whole industrial chain project using agricultural and forestry wastes in a new strain centre set in Heilongjiang, which will leverage the biological technologies self-developed by BBCA Group. The construction of this project will be performed over three phases to form capacities of 800,000 t/a PLA, 1,200,000 t/a of lactic acid and 1,360,000 t/a straw-based mixed syrup in its entirety.

Bio-based Material Manufacturing Park in Fuyang City, Anhui Province

On 10 May, BBCA Group negotiated and sealed a contract with Hailuo Group Co., Ltd. through a video link. The contractual terms enable USD3.8 billion (RMB27 billion) of investment in co-establishing a bio-based new material manufacturing park with over 100 billion t/a capacities of biomaterials in Linquan County of Fuyang City, Anhui Province, including in modular distributed sugar plants and production projects of polyol, polyurethane (PU or PUR), etc.