Carbios to construct bio-recycled PET plant in France with Indorama Ventures
24 Feb 2022 --- Carbios is revealing plans to build a “first-of-a-kind” manufacturing plant for fully bio-recycled PET in France in partnership with Indorama Ventures. The reference plant is expected to be operational in 2025, with a processing capacity of 50,000 tons of PET waste annually, creating 150 direct and indirect jobs.
Indorama Ventures, reportedly the world’s largest producer of recycled PET for beverage bottles, plans to co-invest in this project. It will consider expanding Carbios’ unique biological recycling process at other PET sites for future developments.
Meanwhile, the French government and the Grand-Est Region “strongly support” the project with “significant” non-dilutive financing. The production site is located in Longlaville, Meurthe-et-Moselle.
“From cutting-edge science, Carbios has developed a disruptive technology and process that enables the efficient transformation of plastic waste into novel valuable products,” comments Bruno Le Maire, French minister of the economy, finance and the recovery.
“This breakthrough project showcases the government’s ambition within France 2030: getting ready for the challenges of the next decade. Combining biotechnology and a renewed industrial ambition will be key to achieving a more circular economy.”
“The announcement by Carbios of a flagship project of enzymatic plastic recycling demonstrates our ability to foster the emergence of innovative industry leaders with cutting edge technologies for the energy transition,” adds Agnès Pannier-Runacher, minister delegate for industry.
The production site is located in Longlaville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France.
Project industrialization
After successfully starting up its demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand, Carbios is now moving one step further toward industrialization and commercialization by partnering with Indorama Ventures. The goal is to build and operate the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET bio-recycling plant, with a processing capacity equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays.
“With this first medium-sized plant, we want to become the world reference for the Circular Economy of plastics and textiles,” says Emmanuel Ladent, Carbios’ CEO. “By engaging in such a partnership with Indorama Ventures, we confirm our commitment to pursue our initial industrial development in France. This plant will pave the way toward international commercial and industrial deployment.”
Both parties agreed to complete a due diligence process after the results of Indorama Ventures’ initial analysis on the technical soundness of Carbios’ technology over the past several months. A feasibility study will be conducted for the industrialization of Carbios’ technology on Indorama Ventures’ French production site. Subject to the successful completion of these technical and economic evaluations, Indorama Ventures would co-invest in the project.
“We are pleased to implement Carbios’ innovative and transformative technology at our Longlaville site. Bio-recycled PET addresses customers’ growing demand to contribute to a cleaner planet through high-quality plastics while decreasing the use of hydrocarbons,” explains D K Agarwal, Indorama Ventures’ CEO.
The new site will have an estimated capacity equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays.
Enzymatic recycling
The capital investment required for the project is expected to be around €150 million (US$168 million) for Carbios’ core technology, including an additional purification step, which has been integrated into the process.
Additionally, an estimated €50 million (US$56 million) investment will be allocated for the infrastructure preparation of the site.
Carbios’ technology, named C-ZYME, converts PET (the dominant polymer in bottles, trays and textiles made of polyester) into its core monomers, which can then be used to manufacture 100% recycled and infinitely recyclable PET.
The manufacturing plant combines Carbios’ science and technology with Indorama Ventures’ world-class manufacturing capabilities, meeting the growing needs of consumers and large consumer goods companies, including Carbios’ partners and shareholders like L’Oréal, Michelin, L’Occitane, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe.
Indorama Ventures recently invested in a Vietnamese PET converter amid a regional consumption boom. It also announced that by 2023 it would be recycling nearly ten billion post-consumer PET bottles in Europe alone.
By Joshua Poole
