A Chinese company in Hubei Province is processing Miscanthus grass from the Yangtze riverbanks into bio-resins and biodegradable materials, aiming to replace petroleum-based inputs in plastics and other products. The firm, Hubei Shouding Industrial, plans to expand capacity tenfold this year with a 10,000-tonne biorefinery. The project fits into China's 15th Five-Year Plan, which promotes bio-manufacturing and green materials. The company also sees potential to use crop straw, which totals about 1 billion tonnes annually, as a future feedstock. For now, the key question is whether the processing energy footprint and cost per tonne can compete with conventional petrochemical routes.
