Chinese experts overcome the technical difficulties in extracting alginate fiber from seaweed

After eight years of hard work, experts from Wuhan Textile University have conquered the key technology of extracting functional alginate fiber from seaweed This technology broke the foreign monopoly and obtained 8 national invention patents Since 2004, the research group led by Zhu Ping, a professor of Wuhan Textile University, has selected a large number of alginate materials suitable for spinning, developed functional alginate fibers with good performance, and independently designed, developed and manufactured the first wet production line suitable for large-scale production of seaweed fibers in China, with an annual spinning capacity of 500 tons It is the dream of textile experts to continuously develop high value-added, green and pollution-free new fibers that can be produced on a large scale Alginate fiber has become the first choice because of its good performance But for a long time, because of its low strength and poor alkali resistance, the industrial production of alginate fiber has been a problem for experts According to Ye Yongmao, professor level senior engineer of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, in the 1980s, China initiated the project, but there was no breakthrough for a long time The annual output value of the two monopoly enterprises in the United Kingdom and the United States that master this technology is less than 100 tons, but the output value is as high as 5.5 billion US dollars Alginate fiber can be widely used in medical dressing, facial mask base, breast disease and female underwear Professor Zhu Ping invented this technology The seaweed used comes from marine pure natural materials Pure water is used as the solvent, which will not cause environmental pollution in the production process and product use Compared with common fiber materials, it has obvious advantages in hygroscopicity, flame retardancy and antibacterial Zhu Ping introduced that the research group also found that alginate fiber has the characteristics of metal ion adsorption and dyeing With the discovery of more characteristics of alginate fiber, more new products can be developed Experts such as Jiang Shicheng, sun Jinliang, Zhou Xiang and Yao mu, academicians of the Chinese Academy of engineering, suggested that the application field of alginate fiber should be developed as soon as possible to meet the market demand.