There are two main reasons for the large price difference between sodium carboxymethyl cellulose of different grades and uses:
1. Different raw materials
The raw material for producing food-grade sodium carboxymethylcellulose is refined cotton. The current price of food-grade refined cotton is 11,500 yuan per ton;
The raw material for producing industrial grade sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is pure wood pulp. Some industrial grades may use wood pulp containing waste materials. The current price of pure wood pulp is 6,300 yuan per ton.
In this way, the raw material difference between food-grade and industrial-grade SCMC is 5,200 yuan.
2. Different production processes
To produce food sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), the purity must be above 99.5%. To produce high-purity CMC, it is necessary to wash it with alcohol multiple times to achieve the required purity. The washing process consumes a lot of alcohol and power, so , the cost will be much higher.
When the CMC purity of industrial grade sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is above 70, a solvent washing process is required, but the number of washing processes is small.
Some industrial-grade SCMC does not require washing and can only be produced using the water-based method. In this way, the cost will be low and the price will naturally be low.
