Brazil-headquartered petrochemical giant and bioplastic producer Braskem has joined forces with Sojitz, a Japanese distributor of chemicals and polymers on the production and sale of bio-based MEG. MEG is a key monomer in the production of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET and is currently produced mainly from fossil-based raw materials.
The two companies have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture which will produce and market both bioMEG -monoethylene glycol - and bioMPG, or monopropylene glycol, a product that has a wide range of applications from unsaturated polyester resins (UPR), commonly used in the construction sector, to cosmetics. The agreement is subject to approval from the relevant antitrust authorities.
The joint venture will combine Braskem's expertise in the industrial production and sale of chemicals and plastics made from renewable sources with Sojitz's strong footprint in Asia. The Asia Pacific is the largest and the fastest-growing market for MEG in terms of volume.
"We are pooling the efforts, expertise and investments of the two companies that are references in their respective segments to create a global leader in bioMEG that can meet the strong market demand for sustainable and renewable products,” said Gustavo Sergi, Renewable Chemicals & Specialties Officer at Braskem.
The companies are planning the construction of three industrial units, with the startup of the first plant in 2025. The units will be use technology developed and supplied by Danish company Haldor Topsoe, with which Braskem partnered in 2017. This collaboration yielded innovative technology for converting sugar into bioMEG and bioMPG, with the first bioMEG samples being produced at demonstration scale in 2020.
The present joint venture between Braskem and Sojitz will advance this technology to the commercial production phase, added Sergi.
For Sojitz, the agreement to produce bioMEG brings the company another step closer to its goal of developing 100% bio-based PET, said Manabu Endo, General Manager of Basic Chemicals Dept. at Sojitz. Sojitz is working on the development of bio-paraxylene with various Japanese partners, he explained. The company invested in Tokyo-based Green Earth Institute in June 2021, with which it is currently developing a low-cost process to produce biomass-derived isobutanol with the help of microbes. Isobutanol is converted to PTA through paraxylene. PTA is the other raw material used to produce PET.