PVC maker Kem One and clean technology specialist Carbios SA are studying the potential of building a demonstration plant for Carbios' biorecycling technology.
The two French companies announced Dec. 4 that they had signed a "letter of intent" to evaluate whether to build a plant at Kem One's production facility near Lyon in a region with multiple chemical facilities, in a bid to roll out the technology.
Earlier this year, Carbios completed Thanaplast, a five-year 22 million euro ($25 million) program aimed at developing new industrial processes to improve the production and recycling of biopolymers.
During the final key stage of the study, Carbios said it had demonstrated the ability to synthetise PET oligomers made out of terephthalic acid coming from its biorecycling process of PET plastic bottles.
The company was subsequently able to successfully produce virgin PET from post-consumer PET plastic bottles treated by enzymatic hydrolysis.
In a statement to PNE Dec. 4, a Carbios spokesman explained that this stage of the partnership with Kem One did not involve any financial contribution from either sides and was expected to last six months.
“It's more a question of means and resources on both sides to make this project become a reality,” said Benjamin Audebert, Carbios' investors relation official.
The project timeline includes the evaluation of the site and confirmation in the first half of 2019.
If approved, construction is expected to start in 2020, with operations to begin in early 2021.