Avantium, Danone Research to develop polyethylene furanoate bottles

22 March 2012 09:41  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Avantium and Danone Research have entered a joint agreement to develop polyethylene furanoate bottles for Danone, the Dutch biotechnology company said on Thursday.

The agreement forms Avantium’s commercialisation strategy to further co-develop the YXY technology for producing polyethylene furanoate bottles, the Dutch firm said in a statement.

Based on the YXY technology, the joint objective is to contribute to the emergence of a new renewable material generation, which will not be in direct competition with food, the statement said.

The YXY technology is a chemical catalytic technology to convert carbohydrates produced from plants, grains, energy crops, lignocellulosic matter, waste streams, waste paper or agricultural residues into a wide variety of bio-based polymers, according to Avantium.

In mid-December last year, US firm Coca-Cola partnered with Gevo, Virent and Avantium to develop a 100% plant-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin for Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle pacakaging.

In the long term, Avantium will license its YXY technology to enable large-scale, worldwide production and use of its bio-sourced plastic materials, the statement said.

“We believe that the process economics and carbon footprint of polyethylene furanoate makes it a suitable PET alternative,” Avantium added.

In late February this year, Avantium CEO Tom Van Aken announced the company’s plans to start the commercialisation of the bio-based polyethylene furanoate by 2015 with a new 30,000-50,000 tonne/year facility.

By: Samuel Wong

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