WUHAN, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- For years, a tall grass growing along a stretch of the Yangtze, China's longest river, was treated as little more than a nuisance.
Known as Miscanthus lutarioriparius, the perennial grass once supplied small local paper mills. But after the mills were shut down over pollution concerns, much of it was left to rot. Millions of yuan had to be spent each year clearing it away.
Now, entrepreneur and botanist Sang Tao sees something very different in the same plant: a raw material that could replace some petroleum-based materials in a wide range of everyday and industrial products.
At his company in Shishou, a city in central China's Hubei Province, the grass collected along the Yangtze is processed into lignin- and cellulose-based materials. These can then be made into bio-resins, biodegradable plastics and other products for uses ranging from agriculture and consumer goods to new energy and advanced manufacturing.
Some of Hubei Shouding Industrial Co., Ltd.'s bio-resins are already on the market. This year, its biodegradable mulch film is expected to be used across several thousand mu of farmland.
For Sang, however, these products are only a beginning. He expects plant-based raw materials to gradually replace a portion of petroleum-derived materials over the next five to 10 years.
"The global oil market is unstable, while there is an urgent need to curb global warming. We must therefore move faster," Sang said.
Petroleum is deeply embedded in modern manufacturing. It provides the raw materials for countless products, from plastics, clothing and cosmetics to electronics, medical equipment and automobile components.
China is a major oil consumer and relies heavily on imported oil, with its dependence on imports reaching 72 percent, according to official data.
The country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), released in March, calls for promoting a green and low-carbon transition and encourages the development of new energy, new materials and bio-manufacturing as emerging and future industries.
This broader push is creating new opportunities for companies like Shouding to scale up.
Shouding established its factory in Shishou in 2019, with its output valued at 20 million yuan (2.96 million U.S. dollars) last year. Sang plans to expand production, with a biorefinery capable of producing 10,000 tonnes a year set to come online this year, roughly 10 times the company's current capacity.
Sang, who earned his PhD in the United States, sees Miscanthus as just a starting point. He hopes the technology can eventually be applied to the roughly 1 billion tonnes of crop straw produced annually in rural China, turning agricultural waste into a valuable industrial resource.
For Shishou, the project offers a way to give new value to a once-overlooked local resource.
"We hope the company can bring both economic and environmental benefits, boost rural revitalization and local incomes, and support a greener, low-carbon and circular economy along the Yangtze River Economic Belt," said Hu Zhenchao, a local river management official in Shishou.
Shouding is not the only company in Shishou exploring new uses for plants. The city has also attracted companies that use Miscanthus and other plant-based materials to make high-performance specialty paper products for applications including home and food products, medical care, consumer goods and electrical equipment.
Sang sees the field as an industry of the future, and believes China, with its rapidly growing clean energy and advanced materials sectors, can offer useful experience to the world in pursuing greener, lower-carbon development. ■
