Carbios invests in PET biorecycling facility

05-Dec-2018 - Last updated on 05-Dec-2018 at 09:34 GMT

Green chemistry specialist Carbios is moving forward with its ambitions to expand into PET biorecycling after signing a letter of intent with Kem One for an implementation project to progress its biorecycling technology.

The project will move ahead in the French Chemical Valley, and aims to take bring a circular economy for the type of PET and fibers packaging that is commonly used for a wide range of products in the cosmetics and personal care industry.

The Carbios technology has been developed to break the cycle of PET, which is largely produces from fossil resources, ending up in landfill or other areas where they cannot be re-used.

Bringing the technology to fruition

The Carbios development team have created a proprietary technology that enables waste plastics and fibers instead of petrochemicals to produce new virgin materials, which is said to have no impact on the quality of the matierals.

Impressed by the sustainability and eco-friendly credentials of the project, Kem One, a company that specialises in producing vinyl, has decided to become involved in the project by providing its industrial site to demonstrate how the technology can be industrialised.

“We are delighted to enter in such discussions with Carbios. Our industrial site, embedded in France’s birthplace of chemistry, is ideally placed to host innovative clean technologies,” said Alain Consonni, site manager at Kem One.

“As a major player in the vinyl industry in Europe, we are deeply committed to promoting and developing solutions that addresses key environmental and societal challenges of our time.”

Aiming to build the plant in 2019

The project to demonstrate the industrial process for the PET Recycling will take place at Kem One’s industrial site in Saint-Fons, near the city of Lyon, in France.

Over the course of six months Carbioss will undertake the study of the construction of the construction of the demonstration, while the engineering study will be conducted by Carbio’s partner TechnipFMC, with the aim of building the plant in mid-2019.

“The economic vitality of the Chemical Valley and Kem One’s site at Saint-Fons seem perfectly suited for the scale-up and subsequent industrial demonstration of our innovative technology,” said Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of Carbios.

“Its organization offers many industrial synergies with the pooling of services, equipment and resources. We are confident that our strategy will lead to a successful industrial roll-out of our biological solution for infinite recycling of PET plastics and fibers.”