Chemical major Sabic has earned ISCC Plus accreditation for its Functional Forms plant in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, the company has announced.
As a result, the company is now able to provide a new range of Lexan polycarbonate film and sheet products based on certified renewable feedstock. The new products will become the newest addition to Sabic’s growing Trucircle portfolio of products
The ISCC system offers an international, practically viable, and transparent system for certifying biomass and bioenergy. One of the approaches it uses is mass balance: a method that makes it possible to track the amount and sustainability characteristics of circular and/or bio-based content in the value chain and attribute it based on verifiable bookkeeping. Predefined and transparent rules determine whether a product can be classified as renewable or circular. For Sabic, this means that for each ton of renewable or circular feedstock fed into the production process instead of fossil-based feedstock, approximately one ton of the output material can be classified as either renewable or circular. The mass balancing approach also allows OEMs to document and quantify the sustainability of their applications made from these certified materials.
A life cycle analysis was also performed by Sabic to assess the environmental performance of the renewable route in comparison to the traditional fossil-based route at both cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-gate plus end-of-life levels. This analysis demonstrated that each kilogram of Sabic polycarbonate resin based on certified renewable feedstock has the potential for reducing fossil depletion by up to 35 percent and lessening the carbon footprint of applications by up to 60 percent.
“Our new bio-based Lexan film and sheet products are manufactured using polycarbonate resin partially sourced from second-generation feedstock that is not in direct competition with the food chain,” said Alda Shabanaj, Product Manager Film & Mass Transportation Europe at SABIC. “The resulting materials can help our customers create value with durable and recyclable application solutions across multiple industries.”
The new polycarbonate film and sheet products, produced at Sabic’s Bergen op Zoom production site, and are now globally available.