The Development Trend of Cellulose Ether

Cellulose Ether has the basic structure of cellulose-anhydroglucose structure. In the process of producing cellulose ether, the cellulose fiber is first heated in an alkaline solution, and then treated with an etherifying agent. The fibrous reaction product is purified and ground to form a uniform powder with a certain fineness.

In the production process of MC, only methyl chloride is used as an etherifying agent; in addition to methyl chloride, propylene oxide is also used to obtain hydroxypropyl substituents in the production of HPMC. Various cellulose ethers have different methyl and hydroxypropyl substitution rates, which affect the organic compatibility and thermal gel temperature of the cellulose ether solution.

Due to the structural differences in market demand for cellulose ethers, a situation where companies with different strengths can coexist. In view of the obvious characteristics of structural differentiation of market demand, domestic cellulose ether manufacturers have adopted a differentiated competitive strategy based on their own strengths, and at the same time, they have a good grasp of the development trend and direction of the market.

(1) Ensuring product quality stability will still be the core competitiveness of cellulose ether companies.

Cellulose ether accounts for a relatively small part of the production cost of most downstream enterprises in this industry, but it has a greater impact on product quality. Before using a certain brand of cellulose ether, the mid-to-high-end customer groups must go through formulation experiments. After a stable formula is formed, it is usually not easy to replace products of other brands. At the same time, higher requirements are placed on the quality stability of cellulose ether. This phenomenon is more prominent in high-end fields such as large domestic and foreign building materials manufacturers, pharmaceutical excipients, food additives, and PVC. In order to improve the competitiveness of products, manufacturers must ensure that the different batches of cellulose ether supplied can maintain quality stability for a long time, in order to form a better market reputation.

(2) Improving the level of product application technology is the development direction of cellulose ether enterprises

With the increasingly mature production technology of Cellulose Ether HPMC, a higher level of application technology is conducive to enterprises to enhance their comprehensive competitiveness and form stable customer relationships. Well-known cellulose ether companies in developed countries mainly adopt the competitive strategy of “facing large-scale high-end customers + developing downstream uses and usage”, develop cellulose ether uses and use formulas, and configure series of products according to different sub-application areas to facilitate customer use , And to cultivate downstream market demand. The competition of cellulose ether enterprises in developed countries has moved from product to application technology competition.

Cellulose ether is known as “industrial monosodium glutamate”. It has the advantages of wide use, small unit consumption, good modification effect, and environmental friendliness. It is widely used in building materials, medicine, food, textiles, daily chemicals, petroleum extraction, and mining. , Papermaking, polymerization, aerospace and many other fields.