PEF
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Stora Enso enters the FDCA market
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The market for furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is getting more traction with new players entering this space. Stora Enso announced on December 10 that it is investing EUR 9 million to build a pilot facility to focus on developing a cost-competitive process for manufacturing FDCA from sugars. FDCA is a key component of the bio-based barrier…
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Avantium to build 5 ktpa FDCA, PEF flagship plant
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Avantium held its first Technology & Markets Day titled “Path to a fossil-free world” yesterday at the company’s headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The management team provided an update on the strategy of Avantium and its technologies, including the strategy for Synvina and commercialization of PEF. Avantium announced that it intends to build a cash-flow…
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BASF to exit from Synvina
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Bad news today as BASF notified Avantium of its exit from their Synvina joint venture effective 15 January 2019. Avantium said it continues to disagree with BASF’s interpretation of the joint venture agreement. I am not sure what exactly they are disagreeing about (technology? timing? IPs? financing?) but as one startup CEO told me, having…
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BASF, Avantium in Synvina dispute
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I hate posting this kind of news but I’m still a reporter at heart so I just hope that these two companies will resolve their issues about Synvina, the joint venture formed by BASF and Avantium. The JV aims to set up a 50 ktpa FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) reference plant at BASF’s site in Antwerp,…
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ADM, DuPont starts FDME pilot facility
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Just in time for my Biomaterials newsletter deadline, Archer Daniels Midland and DuPont Industrial Biosciences announced the opening of the world’s first biobased furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) pilot production facility in ADM’s Decatur, Illinois site. FDME is a building block molecule derived from fructose that can be used in various chemicals and materials production…
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PEF to be integrated in European PET recycling
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This is big news coming from Synvina (the JV between Avantium and BASF) as the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP) – a voluntary initiative of industry organizations representing waste collectors, plastic recyclers, PET material producers and brand owners, gave an interim approval for the recyclability of polyethylene furanoate (PEF). Following EPBP’s assessment, PEF bottles are…
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Video: BASF, Avantium discuss the potential of FDCA
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Avantium’s Tom van Aken and Stefan Blank, President of BASF’s Intermediates Division, discuss their cooperation regarding the production of a new and bio based raw material using furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Their Synvina joint venture aims to start construction of an FDCA reference plant by the end of 2018, with sales of FDCA and PEF (polyethylene furanoate) expected…
