Avantium, a Netherlands-based technology provider in renewable chemistry, has been awarded a €0.76 million grant by the EU Horizon Europe programme for its participation in the research and development programme Rebiolution. The company announced the news early on 16 August.
The three-year Rebiolution programme aims to design and synthesise biobased and biodegradable polyester blends based on FDCA and other biobased monomers for use as plastic coating for food packaging and for agricultural mulch films. The grant is being paid out in tranches over a period of three years, starting in June 2023.
Avantium has developed proprietary technology, dubbed YXY - that converts plant-based sugars into the monomer FDCA. This can be polymerised together with plant-based mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) into the sustainable plastic PEF.
FDCA, listed in 2004 by the US Department of Energy as the number two in the top 12 priority chemicals for establishing the green chemistry industry of the future, also serves as a building block for the creation of a variety of polymers, from polyesters, polyamides and polyurethanes, to coating resins, plasticisers and other chemical products. Avantium is currently constructing the world’s first commercial FDCA facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, with an annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes. That plant is scheduled to open in 2024.
Under the Rebiolution programme, Avantium will provide several hundreds of kilogrammes of FDCA for the development and production of a biodegradable and compostable polyester blend. This blend could replace PE in the plastic coatings applied to, amongst others, paper-based food packaging. Mulch film is another proposed application: the new polyester could be a fully biobased alternative for the widely used PBAT, which is partly fossil-based.
“FDCA is a key element in the Rebiolution strategy. The potential of FDCA is based on its plant-based origin and on its structural similarity to the largest-volume commodity chemical PTA, or purified terephthalic acid. By reacting FDCA with other biobased monomers, we intend to produce a 100% biobased and biodegradable polyester which also fulfils requirements regarding processing, lifetime, performance and cost-effectiveness, said Kai Siegenthaler, coordinator of the Rebiolution project and responsible for biopolymers research at BASF.
“Avantium's polymerisation-quality FDCA is not only the key building block for the plant-based plastic material PEF, but has many other potential applications in various markets, as shown by this project,” concluded Bas Blom, director of Avantium Renewable Polymers.
Rebiolution stands for ‘Novel biodegradable, REcyclable, BIO-based and safe plastic polymers with enhanced circuLar properties for food packaging and agricUltural applicaTIONs. The Rebiolution project, which has received a € 4.9 million EU Horizon Europe grant in total, is conducted by a consortium is composed of nine partners from seven different countries: BASF SE (Germany), Organic Waste Systems (Belgium), Hydra Marine Sciences GmbH (Germany), Contactica S.L (Spain), Avantium Renewable Polymers BV (Netherlands), Tampereen Korkeakoulusaatio SR (Finland), Stora Enso (Finland), Centre Technique de l Industrie Despapiers Cartons et Celluloses (France), Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zuerich (Switzerland).