The Roquette Group says its plant for produce Gaialene plant-based plastics is now operational. The plant, with capacity of 25,000 tonnes, is based in Lestrem, France.
The company announced it was moving into bioplastics in 2010, saying that Gaialene resins contain over 50% plant based materials. They are “not the result of mixing or compounding; they are the product of genuine hemisynthesis which gives them their original properties”, director general Jean-Bernard Leleu said at the time.
Gaialene is suitable for applications that normally use common polyolefins or ABS, as it has good shock resistance, softness and easy colouring and compounding. Gaialene can be easy processed using existing injection moulding, blow film extrusion and extrusion blow moulding techniques.
Roquette said it chose Lestrem for the plant to have the benefit of the upstream integration of plant-based resources within the biggest biorefinery in Europe.