RENEWABLE NEWS
Corbion and Total plan PLA facility in Europe Dutch food ingredients and biotech company Corbion and French oil giant Total are building a new polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastics plant in Europe, Corbion announced on 24 September. The 100,000 tonnes/year plant was being developed through the Total Corbion PLA joint venture. Located in Grandpuits, France, the facility was expected to be operational in 2024. “PLA is increasingly finding its place as a bioplastic, enabling acceleration towards a circular economy,” said Corbion CEO
Global agribusiness Cargill is working with US energy firm Virent on the production of bio-based fuels and chemicals, the companies announced on 30 September. Cargill’s corn dextrose was being evaluated as a feedstock to Virent’s Bioforming technology for the production of ‘drop-in’ low carbon biofuels and biochemicals. Virent’s Bioforming technology uses sugars found in plants as feedstock to produce renewable gasoline and jet fuel, as well as lower carbon biochemicals. The sugars can originate from any plant source, including first generation crops such as corn, sugarcane and sugar beets, as well as lignocellulosic materials from wood and other sources. “We believe US corn dextrose is an attractive feedstock for our process and expect
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MEXICO: US speciality chemical company Stepan has acquired Clariant’s surfactant business and associated equipment in Santa Clara, Mexico, the company announced on 17 September. “This acquisition supports Stepan’s growth strategy in Latin America and enhances our ability to support our customers’ growth in the Mexican consumer and functional markets for surfactants,” said F Quinn Stepan Jnr, chairman, president and CEO of Stepan. Stepan did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition. Headquartered in Illinois, Stepan is a leading producer of surfactants and is also a supplier of polyurethane polyols. It has a network of production facilities in North and South America, Europe and Asia.
Corn dextrose is being evaluated as a feedstock in Virent’s Bioforming technology
this study to demonstrate how US corn dextrose can be used for broader applications to produce renewable gasoline, jet fuel and biobased chemicals,” said Virent president Dave Kettner. Establishing the Virent Bioforming process as a viable opportunity for producing jet fuel and renewable gasoline
as a complement to ethanol would open up new markets for corn and expand the opportunities for both renewable fuels and chemicals, he said. Virent would use the results of the survey to evaluate options for scale-up and the development of a first commercial plant using the Bioforming technology.
MPOB and Techbond palm-based polyol venture The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has teamed up with industrial adhesive company Techbond Greentech to produce palm oil-based polyol, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commerce (MPIC) announced on 10 June. The palm oil-based polyol would be used as one of the
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along with other products. Crude oil refining at the platform would be discontinued in the first quarter of 2021 with petroleum product storage ending in late 2023. “Total is reaffirming its ambition to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050,” Total’s president of total refining & chemicals Bernard Pinatel said. The plant will mainly process animal fats from Europe. and used cooking oil, supplemented with other vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, excluding palm oil.
Cargill partners with Virent in production of bio-based fuels
IN BRIEF
CHINA: German industrial group thyssenkrupp has won a second order to build a bioplastics plant in China based on its PLAneo technology. The plant in southern China would produce 30,000 tonnes/year of polylactide (PLA), the company said. Its first plant based on PLANeo technology was built in Changchun in 2018.
Olivier Rigaud. “In our recently released Advance 2025 strategy one of our goals is, together with Total, to become the market leader in PLA. This new plant puts us firmly on track to achieve that goal.” Total also announced on 24 September that it would be investing €500M (US$584.6M) to convert its Grandpuits refinery into a renewable diesel plant processing animal fats and used cooking oil. Following its conversion, the facility in Seine-et-Marne would produce renewable diesel primarily for the aviation industry,
components of polyurethane adhesives to replace formaldehyde-based adhesives. In February, the two companies signed a memorandum of agreement for the commercialisation of palm oil-based polyol technology. This would involve two stages – research and development
followed by commercialisation of the technology. “Techbond Greentech will now produce sustainable palm oil-based polyol for the production of new industrial-grade polyurethane adhesives and, ultimately, commercialise the product,” the company said in a statement. www.ofimagazine.com
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