Recently, a reporter from the Science and Technology Daily conducted a phone interview with Wang Liping, a national representative and the director of the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the interview, he called for: accelerating the layout of the bio-based materials industry.
National People's Congress representative, Director of the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Liping
The following is the interview content:
Biobased materials refer to a type of new materials synthesized through biological and chemical transformations using various renewable biomass resources found in nature. As the core application and export direction of the bio-manufacturing industry, biobased materials are of great significance for building the future industrial system.
The "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" has made deployments for six future industries including bio-manufacturing, pointing out the direction for the development of biobased materials. "Developing biobased materials is an important way to reduce excessive reliance on fossil resources and achieve the 'dual carbon' goals," said Wang Liping, a national representative and the director of the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Science and Technology Daily recently.
"At present, biobased materials are in a critical period of transitioning from technological maturity to large-scale application," Wang Liping said. China's biobased materials industry has a relatively good development foundation, but it still has a certain distance from leading the international innovation and development of biobased materials. For example, compared with traditional plastic projects, the development of biobased plastics in China started relatively late and is facing problems such as immature production technology, high product prices, and an incomplete product standard system. The accumulation of basic research in related fields, breakthroughs in key technologies, cooperation between industry and academia, and the construction of the industrial system still need to be further strengthened.
Therefore, Wang Liping proposed three suggestions for promoting the development of biobased materials.
First, establish a national biobased materials industry special project to coordinate the industrial layout from the top level. Increase support for key directions such as cellulose conversion to sugar, biobased nylon, biobased polyurethane, polylactic acid foaming materials, plant fiber biobased composite materials, and biobased additives, and promote the rapid industrialization of mature technology projects.
Second, support the construction of national biobased materials innovation platforms to break through key core technologies. Establish the National Biobased Materials Manufacturing Innovation Center and the National Industrial Technology Engineering Center for Biobased Materials, and encourage the development of different series of derivatives and polymers based on biobased platform compounds; focus on breaking through key technical bottlenecks such as the low-cost production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, efficient catalytic polycondensation of furan dicarboxylic acid and biobased ethylene glycol, and providing strong technical support for industrial development.
Third, establish a biobased materials standard system and green certification mechanism, and increase support for enterprises. It is suggested that the country accelerate the formulation of product standards, testing method standards, and safety evaluation standards for biobased materials, and establish a certification system such as biobased content certification, carbon footprint accounting, and degradable performance evaluation that is in line with international standards. It is suggested that biobased material products be included in the government's green procurement directory, and public institutions and state-owned enterprises should be the first to use biobased material products.
Regarding Wang Liping: He is a materials scientist, an associate fellow of the Asia-Pacific Materials Academy, and the current director of the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a researcher, and a doctoral supervisor. He has been engaged in research on material damage and protection in special and extreme environments for a long time, and has made several key technological breakthroughs in functional protective coating materials and their engineering applications. In 2025, his team had two achievements published in the "Nature" and "Science" journals, and a technology completed the first verification at a depth of 10,000 meters in the global ocean, and a set of solutions were used to "guard the navigation" of the Zhejiang cross-sea bridge.
