Avantium announces its Bio-based PEF Packaging to replace PET

Avantium is launching its fully biobased replacement for PET, a polymer commonly used in packaging. This represents a milestone for sustainability in the plastics industry; this is the first fully renewable route to producing this widely used plastic.

Semi-biobased PET polymers were recently adopted by Heinz and Coca Cola for use in their respective Ketchup and Coca-Cola bottles. PET is manufactured from two chemicals, one of which (ethylene glycol) makes up 30% of the total mass of the polymer and has been successfully produced from biobased feedstock. The other component which comprises the remaining 70% of the polymer, terephthalic acid (TPA), has proven more difficult to replace and a number of companies are working to find drop-in routes for producing TPA from biobased feedstock. The difficulty stems from the complex synthesis currently needed to produce TPA from biobased feedstock; this complexity adds to the cost and makes it commercially non-viable.

Avantium have taken a different tack, trying to find a replacement for TPA which can be produced from biobased feedstock more easily. They have found a viable alternative in Furan Dicarboxylic Acid (FDCA) to replace TPA and producing a polymer known as PEF. Avantium claim that FDCA is cheaper than TPA and that PEF has similar (or better) properties to PET and are ultimately produced from biobased sugars. These sugars are then used to produce furanics (the bread and butter of Avantium’s R&D) which are then converted to FDCA. The finished PEF bottles look identical to bottles produced with PET.

Avantium has been working on scaling up the process, though a pilot plant has not yet been announced and there is no more information available on how the commercialization of the product is progressing. At the Bioplastek 2011 forum the Netherlands-based company will introduce the product. There, the company is expected to detail PEF in comparison to PET with technical details on comparative performance. High on the agenda is likely to be how recyclable PEF is; will it fit into existing infrastructure for recycling PET?

However, once Avantium hit the commercialization point with the product, thinking outside the box with PEF as they have done might lead to difficulties for the plastics manufacturer. PEF is a new plastic without a market or reputation, despite being plugged as a “drop-in” substitute for PET in the industry if 100% biobased TPA can be produced economically it might stifle PEF before it gets off the ground. Indeed, Genomatica talked at length about this in their presentation regarding bio-based chemicals market research; novel products are struggling while their markets are growing and drop-in products are growing more easily. Avantium will have to market the product carefully to ensure it succeeds in the marketplace.