Global bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol industry research report

1,3-Propanediol (PDO for short), a colorless, odorless, hygrhyscopic transparent viscous liquid, is widely used in cosmetics, pharmaceutical intermediates, PTT polyester, coatings, lubricants, inks, fatty acid esters, acrylates and other fields. Its most important use is polymerization with terephthalic acid (PTA) to produce polypropylene terephthalate (PTT).

Biobased 1, 3-propylene glycol was invented by DuPont and has long dominated the market ever since. Until 2013, the Tsinghua University team developed a new synthetic pathway and began commercial production with companies such as Meiirong Chemical. Until now, the bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol industry participants are still limited, and the technology and production rate are still in the early stage of exploration and research.

Bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol is a kind of polymer material with excellent properties and wide application range. It can be used as a wetting agent in combination with glycerin or sorbitol in cosmetics, toothpaste and soap, as a moisture conditioner and hair leveller in hair dye, as an antifreeze, and in the cellophane, plasticizer and pharmaceutical industries. It can also be used to replace ethylene glycol and butanediol to produce polyol polyester and produce new polyester fiber PTT.

PTT is a new type of polyester material with excellent performance, which is rated as one of the six new chemical products, known as the king of polyester, second only to spandex in elasticity, and has the stability of PET and excellent shape preservation characteristics. 1, 3-propylene glycol is the main raw material of biomass fiber PTT. Due to the limited capacity of 1, 3-propylene glycol, the supply and demand of PTT have always been a big gap. The development of bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol industry can meet the huge PTT demand gap.

At present, the production of 1, 3-propylene glycol is divided into chemical method and biological method. Due to the large investment in chemical method, high technical difficulty and high production cost, it has not been further developed. In contrast, biological fermentation method has the advantages of mild reaction conditions, simple operation, less by-products, good selectivity, low energy consumption, less equipment investment, and environmental friendliness.

The global bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol market size is approximately $483 million in 2022 and is expected to reach $2.225 billion in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.48% during 2023-2029. There is a lot of uncertainty in the industry over the next few years.
At the production level, the United States is currently the world’s largest bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol production region, with about 63% market share, followed by China, with about 36% market share. At present, the global market is basically dominated by American and Chinese regional manufacturers.

From the perspective of product type and technology, glucose conversion and biodiesel conversion are the main methods at present. Among them, glucose conversion has become the main production method due to its simplicity and efficiency, accounting for 91.85% in 2022.

From the perspective of product market application, bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol has a wide range of applications, including PTT, cosmetics, medicine and so on. Among them, PTT is the most important downstream application market, accounting for 79.92% in 2022.
In the future, with the formal proposal of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan for biological economy, more and more bio-based materials and chemicals have received attention, and investment and research and development efforts have gradually increased. The participation of big companies and capital will undoubtedly inject more vitality into this emerging track. In addition, the industrialization technology of bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol is also constantly improving and the application field is expanding, and the development prospect of bio-based 1, 3-propylene glycol in China will be very broad.
According to different product types, the following categories are included:

Glucose conversion method

Biodiesel conversion method

According to different applications, it mainly includes the following aspects:

PTT polyester

cosmetics

medicine

other

The main regions and countries covered in this article:

North America (USA and Canada)

Asia Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, etc.)

Other regions