Dutch renewable chemistry company Avantium is collaborating with Germany-based EPC Engineering & Technologies to commercialise continuous polymerisation of PEF.
Polyethylene furanoate (PEF) is a 100% plant-based and recyclable plastic. Applications include polyesters, polyamides and polyurethanes, as well as coating resins, plasticisers, and other chemical products. Avantium has developed a proprietary technology called YXY that uses catalysts to convert plant-based sugar (fructose) into furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), the key building block PEF.
The partnership aims to advance the continuous PEF polyester production technology, targeting plant capacities of 100,000 tonnes per year and beyond. Avantium and EPC will integrate their respective technologies and processes, together with the solid-state polymerisation (SSP) of Polymetrix, a Swiss polymer technology provider previously known as Bühler Thermal Processes.
The continuous PEF polymerisation technology, called PEF cPol, will be included in Avantium’s YXY technology license package. EPC will provide engineering, plant construction services, and key equipment, including the SSP equipment from Polymetrix, to Avantium’s future licensees.
The technology licenses will allow industrial partners to produce FDCA and PEF in large-scale production facilities using Avantium’s proprietary YXY Technology. They will include performance guarantees at industrial scale for new, modified, or retrofitted plants.
Avantium is already working with Thailand-based SCG Chemicals (SCGC) to accelerate market adoption of FDCA and PEF in Asia.
“By combining our expertise with EPC and Polymetrix, we are confident that we can offer our potential licencing partners a comprehensive license package that integrates Avantium's YXYTechnology with continuous PEF polymerisation technology, providing a high-performance alternative to fossil-based plastics,” said Bart Langius, director licencing at Avantium.
Avantium and EPC already worked together in 2017, when EPC developed a conceptual design for a 25,000 tonnes per annum PEF continuous polymerisation plant using melt state polymerisation. This conceptual design served as the starting point for today’s agreement to further scale the polymerisation technology to 100,000 tonnes per annum and beyond.
Avantium officially opened its FDCA commercial plant in October 2024. Located in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, the plant is set to produce 5,000 tonnes of FDCA per year. The company has already established supply agreements for PEF or its building block FDCA, including Helios, Henkel, and Carlsberg. The conditional offtake agreements represent 95% of the capacity of the flagship plant for the first five years of operation.