Avantium started construction of a pilot project using its YXY Technology for the production of furanics at Chemelot site in Geleen, Netherlands in October 2010.
Furanics are a class of chemical building blocks used to produce innovative green fuels, chemicals and renewable materials.
Part of this pilot plant set-up is a Tamar polyester pilot plant which was a purpose built rig for producing PET and is being used to produce a wide range of furan-based polyesters.
The feedstocks that Avantium used for the production of Furanics are carbohydrates that can originate from a variety of crops. The company’s feedstock strategy is to have maximal flexibility in feedstock sourcing. Requirements for the feedstock are according to the SARA principle:
- Sustainable production
- Available at the production site
- Reliable logistics
- Affordable
Project Background
Polyesters are a fast-growing group of plastic materials. The most important polyester is PET (polyethylene terephthalate) which is produced using purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and ethylene glycol (EG). Exchanging the EG building block in PET for another diol makes it possible to produce other types of polyesters, such as PBT (polybutylene terephthalate, a polyester based on PTA and 1,4-butanediol) and PPT (polypropylene terephthalate, a polyester based on PTA and 1,3-propanediol), each with its own specific properties, applications and volumes. The main raw material for PTA is para-xylene (PX) which is produced by oil refining. EG, the other building block for PET production, is produced on the basis of ethylene, made by oil cracking; EG is now also produced from bioethanol.
Avantium aims to replace PTA in oil-based polyester (such as PET) with the YXY building block FDCA to obtain bio-based polyesters such as polyethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate (PEF) in large applications such as bottles and carpets.
Plant Start-Up
The YXY polyester plant was inaugurated in April 2011, while the monomer pilot plant was opened in December 2011. The plant has a nameplate capacity of 20-40 tonne per year.
Project Financing
The pilot plant was partly funded by a EUR 1 million grant from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry had a total budget of EUR 10 million for projects to realize pilot plants for the production of sustainable bio-based products and energy for the European market.
The Ministry also provided innovation credit and subsidy of EUR 5 million. By July 2011, Avantium secured funding of EUR 30 million to further develop the YXY technology and operate the pilot plants.
Close to EUR 25 million of funds were secured from investors Aescap Venture, Aster Capital, Capricorn Cleantech Fund, De Hoge Dennen, ING Corporate Investments, Navitas Capital, and Sofinnova Partners.
In 2019, the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), an EU body, reconfirmed to award the PEFerence consortium, coordinated by Avantium Renewable Polymers, with a EURO 25 million “PEFerence” Horizon 2020 grant.
YXY Technology
The technology catalytically converts plant-based sugar (fructose) into a wide range of plant-based chemicals and plastics, such as polyethylene furanoate (PEF).
Method:
C6 and C5 sugars from non-food biomass are dehydrated to produce 5-HMF derivatives, called RMF. Catalytic oxidation of RMF produces the 2,5-Furan-dicarboxylic-acid (FDCA).
Polymerisation of FDCA by polycondensation and transesterification with diol components produces polyesters such as PEF.
FDCA and its derivatives can also be used as monomers for producing polymers or as building blocks for coatings and plasticisers.
PEF is a 100% plant-based and recyclable polymer with wide range of applications – packaging, textiles, film, and many more. It shows improved barrier properties for carbon dioxide and oxygen, leading to a longer shelf life of packaged products. It also offers higher mechanical strength, which means that thinner PEF packaging can be produced and fewer resources are required. In combination with the plant-based feedstock, that added functionality gives PEF all the attributes required to become the next-generation polyester, superior to the conventional PET.
Collaborations
- Avantium collaborated with industrial partners such as NatureWorks (a subsidiary of Cargill) and Teijin Aramid to develop novel materials on basis of its YXY building blocks.
- It has also partnered with DAF Trucks, a wholly owned subsidiary of PACCAR for developing and testing the YXY fuels.
- Solvay joined in 2011 to develop and commercialise high-performance green polyamides based on the YXY building blocks.
- Avantium formed a joint venture with BASF in 2016 to build a reference plant with a capacity to produce 50,000 tonne of FDCA per annum. After the dissolution of the Synvina joint venture in January 2019, Avantium took full ownership of the YXY plant-to-plastics technology to produce FDCA and PEF.