While development of fermentation-based polypropylene has mostly disappeared, several companies have long been producing polypropylene based on biomass balance approach.

Neste and its partner IKEA recently announced their plan to start a pilot production of bio-based polypropylene plastic using renewable raw materials such as used cooking oil or vegetable oils. Neste’s green diesel biorefinery also produces co-products such as naphtha and propane. I am not that familiar with propylene production but bio-naphtha seems to be the obvious choice for feedstock given that dehydrogenation of propane to propylene is probably more expensive.

I am curious though if the pilot plant will involve both cracking of bio-naphtha and polymerization of bio-propylene to polymer grade polypropylene or if the catalytic cracking of bio-naphtha to bio-propylene (and bio-ethylene) will be done at a third party site, which will make more economic sense. The pilot plant will reportedly produce commercial-scale PP and PE plastic that will have 20% renewable content. Production is expected to start in the fall of 2018.

According to IKEA, no one has ever before been able to produce PP plastic from a fossil-free raw material other than on a laboratory scale. The pilot plant will reportedly be the first large-scale production of renewable, bio-based PP globally. IKEA and Neste initiated their collaboration in 2016.

I will report more about bio-based PP on my July Biomaterials newsletter for Tecnon OrbiChem.