Yao Mu: Opportunities And Challenges For Sustainable Development Of China'S Textile Industry In The Next Thirty Years

Opportunities for China's textile industry

The world's textile fiber production increased from 1 million 600 thousand tons in 1800 to 76 million 140 thousand tons in 2008, and 73 million 850 thousand tons in 2009.

In 2009, the world produced 27 million 600 thousand tons of natural fibers (lint, pure wool, refined hemp, raw silk, etc.), of which 7 million 290 thousand tons of natural fibers were produced in China, accounting for 36% of the total output of natural fibers in the world.

The total output of chemical fibers in the world is 46 million 250 thousand tons, of which, China produces 26 million 150 thousand tons of chemical fiber, accounting for 56% of the total output of chemical fibers worldwide.

That is to say, in the past more than 100 years, China has become the first largest textile fiber and textile production in the world.

In particular, recycled fibers and synthetic fibers in chemical fibers account for a large proportion of global output.

In recent 30 years, the global textile fiber processing volume has increased from 32 million tons in 1980 to 7400~7600 million tons today.

This increase process in 1980, many textile developed countries in the world believed that the textile industry was a sunset industry. But in fact, the historical process of 30 years shows that the textile industry is not a sunset industry but a sunrise industry.

However, over the past 30 years, the production of many textile products has shifted greatly in the world. Until now, the processing of many high-grade products and industrial textiles continues to be pferred from the economically developed textile giants to the mainland of China. However, in the mainland of China, the middle and low grade clothing and household textiles processing has begun to shift from China to South and Southeast Asian countries while the coastal areas of You Dong's textile processing have shifted to the West and the West.

Industrial textiles will also develop rapidly and add value.

Looking forward to the next 40 years in twenty-first Century, the textile industry will continue to develop rapidly.

The textile industry has gradually changed from "sunset industry" to "traditional pillar industry", "strategic emerging content industry" repositioning and the new "sunrise industry", which is developing rapidly.

Challenges facing the textile and garment industry

Looking forward to the 2050, the textile industry has good development opportunities and magnificent prospects, but it also faces many urgent problems to be solved.

(1) development and utilization of textile fiber raw material resources.

The global textile fiber processing capacity will increase substantially in the next 40 years.

According to UN forecasts, global textile fiber processing capacity will reach 2.53 billion tons in 2050.

Among them, 41 million 500 thousand tons of clothing textiles and 4.51 of per capita fiber consumption.

Kg/ people accounted for 16.4%, household textiles 41 million tons, fiber consumption per person 4.45kg/ per person year, accounting for 16.2%, industrial textiles 170 million 500 thousand tons, and per capita fiber consumption of 18.53kg/ years, accounting for 67.4%.

This change was totally unexpected 30 years ago.

Textile fiber raw materials will increase from about 75 million tons per year to 2.53 billion tons per year. This great development will face many constraints.

The first problem is the global population explosion (released in 2000 by the United Nations, with a Global Forecast of 7 billion 600 million in 2050, a forecast released by the United Nations in January 2009 and a population of 9 billion 200 million in 2050, revised to 9 billion 400 million in February this year). Then, even if all the cultivated land in the world is used for planting grain, it may not be enough to feed 9 billion 400 million people, and the supply of food will be very tight.

Natural fibers, whether cotton or linen, or the mulberry trees used for raising sheep or silkworms, will no longer be used for cultivation. This background will directly affect the production and supply of traditional natural fibers, which will be restricted in the next 40 years.

Second, synthetic fibers are drying up on the basis of petrochemical raw materials. The regeneration of chemical fibers depends on cotton lint and wood pulp and so on. The supply of fast-growing wood can not grow.

More than 90% of the raw materials used for chemical fiber are derived from petrochemical raw materials. This year, an economist from California State University Davies said that with the current resource consumption rate, the global oil and natural gas resources in 2050 will be exhausted.

Therefore, in the next 40 years, there is a huge gap in supply of raw materials for textile fiber, and we must find other resources. This is a very serious problem, not alarmist.

(2) the environmental impact of textile processing is restricted by various conditions.

From the Copenhagen conference to the Tianjin conference last year, and the Stockholm convention ten years ago, the "green" and "low carbon" requirements for the production and textile processing of textile fibers have been put forward, such as "energy conservation", "reducing discharge of sewage and pollutants", "saving water", "reducing energy consumption" and "being environmentally friendly".

This is a major pressure on our textile processing, and is an important constraint to the current processing technology, methods, equipment, technology and so on.

In addition, the more important problem is that "energy saving", "emission reduction" and "consumption reduction" require severe challenges to the processing cost of our textile production.

(3) the quality of textile products will continue to improve in the new era.

Requirements for clothing and household textiles, such as clothing's resistance to ball and hook, are still a difficult problem. Clothing's wrinkle resistance, high moisture rubbing fastness, washability and wearability, sweat and moisture permeability are greatly improved. Functional requirements are constantly improved, such as warmth retention, cool, antibacterial, deodorant, moth proofing, insect repellent, flame retardancy, anti dripping, antistatic properties, UV protection, infrared radiation, electromagnetic radiation resistance, and smart clothing requirements.

In addition, it is even more prominent that health, health care, medical textiles, and physiology, pathology, meridian acupoint theory and many other disciplines interdisciplinary combination, in this aspect of innovative development and application need to spend more efforts to tackle the problem.

In addition, industrial textiles, according to various uses, also put forward new requirements such as high strength, ultra-high strength, high modulus, low modulus, high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance, low resistance, high insulation, high energy particles.

For example, the spacesuit, which is worn by astronauts in the space industry, includes the garments developed by the lunar landing in China. These clothes are used in a special environment. The lowest temperature of one side facing the sun is 185 degrees Celsius. The highest temperature of the garment on the back to the sun is 160 degrees below zero. Therefore, the surface of the garment must remain soft at 185 degrees above the temperature, and it can not melt. It can not be hard and brittle below 160 degrees below zero.

{page_break}

To meet these requirements, we must develop new fiber varieties, develop new textile processing technology and equipment, develop a series of testing technologies and instruments, and set up a series of new standards.

The high performance fiber varieties that have been developed into industrialization in China include: ultra high molecular weight, high strength, high modulus polyethylene fiber, poly (benzyl two methyloxide) two amine fiber, poly (para phenyl) two benzoyl two amine fiber, polyphenyl sulfone, benzyl-two formamide fiber, polyphenylene sulfide fiber, high strength and high modulus carbon fiber, polytetrafluoroethylene film split yarn, polytetrafluoroethylene fiber, basalt fiber, polyimide fiber, high strength polypropylene fiber, high-strength polyvinyl formal fiber, water soluble polyvinyl alcohol fiber.

At the same time, the world's high-performance fibers are being developed and industrialized: ultra high strength carbon fiber, ultra-high modulus carbon fiber, silicon carbide fiber, boron fiber, polyfluorinated fiber, poly (phenylene benzoxazine two oxazole) fiber, poly (phenylene benzo two benzimidazole) fiber, poly (para phenyl) benzo two thiazole fiber and peek fiber.

The world's attention is also focused on chemical fiber processing technology: cellulose solvent spinning; modified cellulose melt spinning; modified polyester fiber polylactic acid fiber; all kinds of high performance fibers: high strength, flame retardant, anti droplet, sweat, antistatic, conductive, magnetic conductive, anti UV, anti electromagnetic radiation, anti high energy particles and so on.

Tasks facing the development of textile industry

(1) expand the new vision of textile fiber materials.

In the past "11th Five-Year" and the upcoming "12th Five-Year" plan, the requirement for broadening the new vision of textile fiber materials is to make full use of natural conditions and develop biomass resources.

That is, using various new technologies to cultivate new fiber varieties, planting natural fibers in saline alkali land, wasteland and hillsides to form a "strategic emerging industry" for the production of natural plant fibers, including mulberry trees of various kinds of cotton, hemp and silkworm, and newly developed kapok fibers and bovine horned melon fibers.

In recent 7 years, our country has produced 300 cotton sticks of fine cotton yarn, twine it into double strands, and then weave it into colored cloth. Then it is made into shirts and is mainly exported to the United States.

There are no other countries in the world to produce this fineness yarn at present.

Cotton yarn that produces such fineness is impossible to produce with ordinary cotton fibers.

Let's calculate: 300 the yarn of the British yarn is equivalent to the number of metric branches is 508, the average count of the ordinary cotton fiber is 4000, and the fine yarn is spun out of ordinary cotton fiber. There are only 8 fibers in each section of the yarn. According to the principle of yarn formation, at least 37 fibers are needed, so ordinary cotton fibers can not be achieved.

This type of 300 cotton yarn is specially cultivated in China, which is grown on saline alkali soil.

In addition, we should make full use of the current crop waste resources (such as feeding mulberry leaves, sugar cane bagasse, hemp core, corn stalk and so on to develop regenerated cellulose fiber); make full use of existing conditions to develop and utilize new biomass resources (bamboo, seaweed, crab shell, dried shrimps, vegetable protein, bacterial protein, etc.); make full use of waste textile regeneration (in the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and other developed countries, waste textile recycled fiber into the market and get consumers' recognition, China has done more than ten years' work, but still needs to work hard); develop new high-performance and new functional textile fibers, including chemical fiber "surpass, imitate, replace"

(2) develop new technologies and equipment for textile dyeing and finishing.

We are familiar with centrifugal spinning, rotor spinning, siro spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, and electrostatic spinning. In addition, new spinning methods have been found, such as compact spinning, low torque (twist) spinning, embedded composite spinning, self twist spinning, multicolor mixed yarn spinning (several yarns of different colors on the same yarn) and rainbow yarn spinning (4 or 10 colors on the same yarn, each of which varies from shallow to deep or from deep to shallow). In terms of spinning equipment and technology, traditional spinning, spinning and ring spinning are carried out.

Spinning spindle speed increased from 13000 rpm to 20000 RPM / even 50000 rpm.

In weaving technology, from original general weaving to dobby weaving,

Dyeing technology has also developed greatly, covering pad dyeing, dyeing and finishing.

The technology of clothing design and manufacture has also been processed from the original hand to the present, covering all kinds of automation technology and forming seamless garment once.

These technologies reflect the great progress made in the manufacturing technology of science and technology and textile dyeing and finishing machinery and equipment in the past 30 years.

But looking forward to the next 40 years, textile dyeing and finishing technology and equipment will surely make greater progress, especially the automatic textile equipment controlled by computers.

(3) the development of textile science theory and the basic role of innovation.

The technology of textile material utilization and processing has been accumulated for over ten thousand years, and the development of modern textile machinery industry has been over 360 years.

However, textile science theory is not yet complete: fiber properties and functions have not yet been fully utilized; the magnetic properties of fibers have not yet been fully recognized and utilized; the performance of many textile materials in industrial textiles has not yet entered the system design stage; the "allowable stress" in the mechanical properties of textile materials has not yet entered the field of design; the health care role of clothing in personal wear has not really started; the textile dyeing and finishing process is still too long and the links are too many; fiber reinforced composites processing system has not yet been standardized; textile testing technology and standards have not yet formed a complete system.

These works are yet to be completed by textile science and technology workers.

The task of textile technology development in the world has posed arduous tasks and complex requirements for Chinese textile science and technology workers.

In this regard, we must sum up the historical achievements and experiences, and try our best to work together with scientific research workers to give full play to their positive role.

It includes tracking international information, strengthening scientific and technological exchanges, cultivating talents of innovation and technology, leading the international trend, and making greater contributions to the further development of the global and Chinese textile industry.