Avantium announced on February 9 that its subsidiary, Avantium Renewable Polymers, signed a patent license agreement with Eastman Chemical Company for the right to operate under Eastman’s FDCA-related patent portfolio. Now the press release just really contains three paragraphs but this is loaded news when you get the implication of a cost-economic production of FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) using the Eastman patent. According to Avantium, the company believes that this patent licence agreement further paves the way for the commercial production of FDCA and PEF (polyethylene furanoate) from Avantium’s FDCA flagship plant, which, dependent on a positive final investment decision, is planned to start up in 2023.

The licence will also be available for any subsequent industrial-scale facility built on the basis of Avantium’s FDCA and PEF technology. Under the agreement, Avantium will pay Eastman a licensing fee and ongoing royalty payments related to manufactured volumes. Payments will be partly made in Avantium shares.

By the way, a few years ago, Eastman also licensed its FDCA and FDCA derivatives production technology (non-exclusive) to Origin Materials. I just spoke to Origin Materials this week about the company going public and what’s going on with the Eastman licensing deal. More on this will be reported on the March issue of Tecnon OrbiChem’s Bio-Materials newsletter (subscription-based).

In separate news, Avantium also recently published its Sustainability Plan “Chain Reaction 2030” highlighting the company’s ambitious vision to achieve a fossil-free chemical industry by 2050. Avantium hopes this plan will galvanise many others into action and together establish a powerful coalition to reach the ambition of a fossil-free chemical industry by 2050.