Corbion and Total plan PLA facility in Europe

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 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, 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.

IN BRIEF

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.

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.

Cargill partners with Virent in production of bio-based fuels

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

Photo: Adobe Stock

Corn dextrose is being evaluated as a feedstock in Virent’s Bioforming technology this study to demonstrate how as a complement to ethanol US corn dextrose can be used would open up new markets for broader applications to for corn and expand the opproduce renewable gasoline, portunities for both renewable jet fuel and biobased chem- fuels and chemicals, he said. icals,” said Virent president Virent would use the results Dave Kettner. of the survey to evaluate

Establishing the Virent options for scale-up and Bioforming process as a viable the development of a first opportunity for producing jet commercial plant using the fuel and renewable gasoline Bioforming technology.

MPOB and Techbond palm-based polyol venture

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board components of polyurethane followed by commercialisation (MPOB) has teamed up with adhesives to replace formalde- of the technology. industrial adhesive company hyde-based adhesives. “Techbond Greentech will Techbond Greentech to pro- In February, the two compa- now produce sustainable palm duce palm oil-based polyol, the nies signed a memorandum of oil-based polyol for the proMinistry of Plantation Indus- agreement for the commercial- duction of new industrial-grade tries and Commerce (MPIC) isation of palm oil-based polyol polyurethane adhesives and, announced on 10 June. technology. ultimately, commercialise the

The palm oil-based polyol This would involve two stages product,” the company said in a would be used as one of the – research and development statement.