Fat & oil is the renewable natural resource and the fat-based fatty acids and their byproduct glycerin are important basic chemical raw materials. Fatty acids and their derivatives are widely used in many fields such as rubber, cosmetics, medicine, foodstuff and textile. With the economic development and technical progress, their application will be ceaselessly widened and they will have great market prospects. Our institute has been devoted itself to engineering design and technical development in fat & oil chemical field, and has achieved consid¬erable results in technical innovations and competed equipment design and commissioning of many projects including fat & oil pretreatment, fat & oil splitting (high-pressure, medium-pres¬sure and low-pressure), distillation of fatty acids (continuous and semi-continuous), hydration of fatty acids, sweet water treatment, and evaporation, distillation of glycerin (continuous and semi-continuous), as well as equipment for their derivations.

Partial technical parameters of our fatty acids plant:
Capacity: As per client's requirements
Degree of fat splitting ≥ 98.5%
Color of distilled fatty acids ≤100 (with stearic acid as example)
Color of glycerin ≤10
Glycerin content ≥ 99.5%

Automatic lunch boxes molding line
Automatic lunch boxes molding machine

Type HIMX lunch boxes molding line is the novel lunch boxes molding equipment. It may use various straw pulps (such as reed pulp, rice straw pulp and bagasse pulp), bamboo pulp, wood pulp, palm fiber to produce lunch boxes, instant noodle boxes.

A single set of Model HIMX molding machine respectively reach daily output of 10000 pieces (based on 600 ml dinner box). Its main spare parts are from Japan and Germany. Easy erection, disassembly and replacement of molds for manufacturing different-shaped products. Type HIMX full-automatic pulp molding line is the domestic pioneer, which keeps stable perfor¬mances.

PALM FIBE PULPING AND PAPER
An Introduction to Project of Palm Fiber-based
Papermaking

I. Generals
Malaysia and Southeastern areas are abundant in palm resources, yearly producing almost four million tons of palm-related fibers (i.e. empty palm fruit shells). But as so far no appropriate methods have been found to utilize the fiber; most of them are burned or buried underground, which is a waste of natural resources as well as pollution to environment. Palm fiber is excellent raw material for paper pulping, and its perfor¬mance indices are better than that of wheatgrass which are widely used in China's paper-making industry, and almost equal to that of reed and poplar timber. If adopting proper technical process and equipment are used, we can make quality pulp featuring good strength, high whiteness, and high yield. Thus made paper can be supplemented with other papers or paperboards. There would be an immense potential and broad prospect for comprehensive utilization of palm resources and palm-based papermaking. Our institute can provide complete set of technical process and equipment for palm-based pulping and papermaking.

II. Favorable Conditions for the Project
Since we began study on this project in 2002, we have made a series of small-scaled, medium-scaled and large-scaled experiments on industri¬alized production of pulping and paper-making with palm fiber and commanded properties of the palm fiber material, its processing methods and design parameters of its equipment. All equip¬ment can be self- manufactured by our country. This technology has been well accepted by and obtained support from Malaysia government and concerned enterprises, and the first palm pulping and paper-making production line in the world we cooperatively constructed with Malaysia Yiguo Group is expected to be put into operation in November 2006.

III. Technical Process Scheme
Various palm fiber-based pulping can be pro¬duced by adopting different technical processes. For example, high-strength corrugated paper can be made from Malaysia palm fiber with trans¬verse tube continuous steaming technology with alkali method. Thus produced thick black liquor can be used, through drying processing, to make byproducts such as alkali lignin. The waste water generated in the intermediate stage can be treated with multi-level physical and biochemical process to reach discharge standard. In the meanwhile, water-saving technique can be adopted in production so as to reduce work volume of water-disposal and therefore to lower disposal cost.

IV. Analysis of Economic Benefits
Take a corrugated paper production line of annual capacity of 20,000 tons as an example. The estimated total investment is about 86 million Yuan, the annual sales volume is expected to reach 54 million Yuan (RMB) in case of sales in China; less the production cost of 26 mln, the sales profit will reach 28 mln, with profit rate of investment of 32.6%, and payback period of 3.07 years. (Note: The byproduct of alkali lignin is currently a badly-needed commodity in Chinese market and has wide application. This benefit has not been included in above calculation). If the product is sold in Malaysia, the sea freight of ca. 380 Yuan /ton can be saved and the production cost will be reduced by 7.60 million Yuan (RMB), which means more considerable economic benefits. The project involves in utilization of waste material of palm and is an environment-friendly one, which can enjoy preferential policy of the Malaysia government (exempt of import duty, enterprise VAT for first ten years) or even financial support.

V. Prospect of the Project
In Malaysia a huge amount of waste materials generated from the local palm oil factories are needed to be disposed or utilized. The local raw materials are low in cost and the price of indus¬trial water, electricity and chemical products as well as the revenue are lower than in China, which will render the investor higher economic benefits. The corrugated paper or related cartons and boxes have vast market in China and in Southeast Asia. Currently several Malaysia enterprises are greatly interested in this project and express their intents to cooperate with our institute.

An Introduction to Project of 8000 t/y Heat-Sensitive Paper Production Line

I. Heat- sensitive Paper Application & Present Situation
Heat- sensitive paper can be used to record information by heat effect. This paper is a kind of specially coated paper. When energy is given to its surface, physical or chemical changes will happen to the substance of the paper, and related images will be produced. The demand on the heat-sensitive paper increases very fast along with the popularizing of the facsimile machine, particularly in countries and regions where special characters such as Chinese and Japa¬nese are widely used. Currently, the world consumption of this paper exceeds 5 million tons in many applications, such as facsimile machines, cashers, ATM, lotteries, boarding cards, train tickets, supermarket bar codes, lining-up machines, price tags and electro¬cardiograph records, etc. For instance, Japan, with a population of 250 million, uses up 120,000 tons a year. China, with a population of 1.3 billion, yearly consumes 50,000 tons. The consumption is expected to increase by 30% each year. However, there are only two or three manufacturers of heat-sensitive paper in China, with a capacity of about 20,000 tons. The short¬age has to be supplemented by import. Therefore, the paper will have a vast market prospect. Our institute can provide its processing technology and complete sets of heat-sensitive paper production line.

II. Major Raw Materials and Environmental Protection of the Production
Major raw materials include heat-sensitive raw paper, heat-sensitive dyes, color emitting agents, sensitizer, various glues, filling stuff, dispersing agents and some subsidiary chemicals, all are in white color and transparent and can be produced domestically. As heat-sensitive paper is made by paper intensive processing involving in no paper-making, it generates neither hazard substance, and nor environmental pollution.

III. Process flow and Investment Estimate

1. The paper is produced through following process flow: coating material preparation -coating off-line - calendering by calendar with four super-soft rolls - rewindering and cutting to rolls - packing - warehousing.

2. Investment size and capital budgetary estimate For a heat-sensitive paper mill with an annual output of 6000-10000 tons, its annual sales income can reach 70-120 million RMB, and its annual profit and tax reach 12 million-16 million RMB.

The total investment is estimated to be 35 million Yuan RMB, including about 20 million RMB for production equipment and the rest for construc¬tion of workshops, warehouses and offices of about 2000 sq. m. floorage, 70 employees (managerial personnel included), distribution equipment of 500 KVA, 2-inch water inlet trunk, boiler of 2-4 tons with steam pressure not less than 0.5 MPa, production-use cranes and fire-fighting equipment. Besides, it needs working capital of RMB 5 million or less.

IV. Economic Benefits
The heat-sensitive paper production generates no environmental pollution. It adopts frequency control, featuring low energy consumption and low costs. Based on the present processing technology, formulae and cost and consumption of raw materials, the estimated production cost is 9,000_9,500 Yuan RMB /ton; besides other expenses of 1000 Yuan / ton shall be calculated into the total cost (including energy consumption, equipment depreciation, labor and sales cost, taxes, etc.) Assuming a sale price of 12000 Yuan / ton (a fairly competitive price at home and abroad), the before-tax profit shall be 1500_2000 Yuan / ton.

It is clear that this project is characterized by relatively less investment, higher output, higher benefits and shorter recovery period. It is estimated that the recovery period for fixed assets shall be two years.

V. Technical Equipment Level & Market Perspec¬tive
This product is of high-tech in nature, and is produced only by scores of manufacturers worldwide. Many countries have not acquired its production technology and thus have no capabil¬ity to produce it. Presently, our country has only 3 heat-sensitive manufacturers, namely Guangdong Guanhao High-Tech, Zhihao and Suzhou Sunway. The first two have equipment modified from other kind of equipment. Suzhou Sunway adopts the equipment specially devel¬oped for heat-sensitive paper production by our institute. Thanks to our equipment as well as the joint efforts made in production processing & formulae, the paper production cost of Sunway has been cut down, and its product quality has reached top or medium level in the world, and been well accepted by the market at home and abroad. Now the paper can not only serve as a substitution for the imports, but also be exported. Market perspective: The consumption on the paper is keeping increasing steadily, and its supply is always falling short of demand. The production line developed by our institute can be used to produce not only general heat-sensitive paper, but also special heat-sensitive paper such as water-resisting, oil-resisting and friction-reducing heat-sensitive paper. Therefore, this project has good market prospect and also conforms to the industrial policy of the country.