CJ Bio launches PHA production in Pasuruan, Indonesia

CJ Bio, a division of South Korea-based CJ CheilJedang, has begun manufacturing PHA biopolyester at a newly commissioned facility located in Pasuruan, Indonesia, the company has announced.
With a rated capacity of 5,000 tonnes, the new facility will exclusively produce ‘amorphous’ PHAs (a-PHAs). Amorphous PHA , which has a low glass transition temperature (Tg),  is a soft, rubbery version of PHA that offers fundamentally different performance opportunities than crystalline or semi-crystalline forms of PHA. This material will be used as a modifier for other polymers and biopolymers to improve functional characteristics and biodegradability.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates are linear polyesters produced in nature through bacterial fermentation of sugars or lipids. They occur naturally in living cells from a 5-10% rate, which gives PHAs their excellent biodegradability. CJ BIO can increase PHA content up to 85% through bacterial strain and proprietary fermentation technology. The company employs advanced downstream technology for the extraction of PHA components and for the manufacture of specific products.
The technology also has the potential to develop building blocks for other performance materials made from non-fossil fuel sources. With the company’s  first commercial production facility up and running a, CJ Bio shipped its first material in April of this year.
This new PHA manufacturing facility in Pasuruan is the culmination of decades of work that started at the company Metabolix in the early 2000s and which CJ Bio has been improving since it acquired Metabolix biopolymer assets in 2016. The company will continue to work of further expansion plans.
“Today, we are the only company with the potential to produce amorphous PHA at scale, with the unique properties required to support the rapid growth of the bioplastics industry. Market response to our technology offering and our new PHA products has been significant,” said Max Senechal, Chief Commercial Officer of the Biomaterials business.
 According to Seung Jin Lee, Head of the Biomaterials business, one of the objectives of the new business is to build a world-class biomaterials platform based on PHA technology, capable of addressing what amounts to a global crisis in plastics pollution. “Plastics are an essential material, improving people’s lives everywhere – but the impact of so much of this material on our environment has become unsustainable moving forward. Increased bio-content and improved biodegradability have been improvements, but the issue of full biodegradability – particularly in marine and home environments – has yet to be addressed. We believe that PHAs – with the right properties and manufactured at scale – will allow us to address this issue globally,” Lee said. “At CJ Bio, we have world-scale fermentation capacity and a broad and flexible PHA technology portfolio to help everyone from plastics manufacturers to consumer products companies develop better solutions,” he added.